Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest electricity distribution company (DisCo), has since the middle of January embarked on an aggressive provision of prepaid meters to customers as part of its strategic plan to be the first power firm in Nigeria to provide all customers with prepaid meters in the next 15 months.
Closing a three-day management retreat on Sunday morning at the company headquarters in Aba, Abia State. Managing Director, Mr. Ugo Opiegbe said: “We increased access to meters from 5 per cent in 2023 to 28 per cent in 2024, the very year we got commissioned after 20 years of man-made obstacles.
“While most people regard this development as an important achievement in the Nigerian context, especially for a company commissioned by Vice President Kashim Shettima only last February on behalf of President Bola Tinubu, to us this is a bold challenge to close the metering gap the way no other DisCo has done”.
“January 2025 will end in the next five days, yet we must install 11,00 prepaid meters within the first month of this year, which is our target, come rain, come shine.
“Anything that can cause a delay is considered an enemy that must be fought with all our resources and being”.
Opiegbe revealed that the company is providing 120,000 meters this year, though the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved only 80,000 prepaid meters that will cost N10.8 billion.
The electricity boss stated that his company is “determined to exceed the NERC benchmark by 50%, despite the excruciating economic difficulties in the country, which will bring the cost to N15 billion, including Maximum Demand meters and feeder meters”.
According to an engineer and founding Managing Director of the Bulk Electricity Trading Company of Nigeria (popularly known as the Bulk Trader or NBET), Rumundaka Wonodi, who attended the retreat, “this meter campaign will be great not only for the people of the Aba Ringfence which is made up of nine of the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia State but the rest of the country because the other 11 DisCos will feel challenged to become more competitive”.
It is understood that Aba Power installed 444 prepaid meters in December 2024, bringing the number installed in the year to 2,040.
A single-phase meter costs N120,000 while a three-phase meter goes for N247,000.
“There is so much hunger on the part of the Aba Power leadership to set records”, noted Wonodi, also a former director of Constellation Energy, the biggest electricity distribution firm in the United States.
Henley Blue-Jack, a retired General Manager with NERC, who also participated in the management retreat, agreed, saying: “I am overwhelmed by what I have seen here and I strongly recommend the Aba Power model for rapid electricity development in our dear country”.
Prof. Steve Ogaji of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company revealed that Aba Power did not put all the money down for the prepaid meter procurement, but worked out an arrangement with meter vendor manufacturers and dealers like Steamaco of the United Kingdom to provide the meters on credit to ensure that as many Aba Power customers as possible have them immediately.
“That’s why it is important to have enormous credibility in the industry”, observed Ogaji, a former Mechanical Engineering lecturer at Cranfield University, one of the top British higher institutions.
“It will be nice for the country to see other DisCos follow in the Aba Power footsteps”.
