Electricity distribution companies across the nation will be stopped from billing electricity users who have not been issued meters.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has stated that it will stop electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) from billing unmetered customers within their networks after a 16-month grace period.
The NERC Chairman, Sam Amadi, who stated this at a media briefing in Abuja, on Tuesday, June 30, explained that the measure is aimed at enforcing widespread metering following the DISCOs’ reluctance to carry out aggressive metering of customers in preference for estimated billing.
Amadi, who briefed newsmen, said that it was unacceptable that over 50 per cent of registered electricity consumers in the country are either unmetered or have non-functional meters despite measures over time put in place by the commission to encourage metering.
He added that new proposal will follow the NERC’s recent decision to cap the maximum charges that a DISCO can levy on its unmetered customers within its approved estimated billing methodology.