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By TAYO ELEGBEDE
Customers of Ikeja Electric have exhibited mixed reactions on Twitter following the announcement that the distribution company has metered only 120,000 households between 2018 and June 2020.
Some customers who reacted to the tweet on the company’s handle @IkejaElectric commended the efforts and urged them to do more, while majority of the comments described the performance as poor considering the total customer strength of about 680,000 in its franchise area.
Some of the customers accused the DisCos for failing to fulfill the mandate to meter all households within five years of operation, describing 120,000 metered customers as poor and shameful performance.
Some of the comments are “In two years, only 120k metered out of how many customers? Let’s know the total metered from the total customer then we’ll know if there’s still hope in filling the meter gap.
Do it already. It’s not an achievement. Years of fraudulent estimated billing cannot be waived with this PR stunts.”
“They are a bunch of rogues who pretend they will like customers to be metered but actually prefer the estimated billing.
Estimated bills for May all over more than double that of April when it’s supposed to be lower based on @NERCNG order. They know they will get away with such.”
Meanwhile, the company’s Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue disclosed that in other to achieve the mandate of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to bridge the metering gap and reduce the incidence of estimated bills, the company has doubled its efforts and is working to meter another 400,000 customers over the next two years.
According to him, the metering of its customers under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme is ongoing, despite logistical challenges emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic. “The company has also metered Maximum Demand (MD) customers in the network and conducts periodic recertifications of the meters in line with Regulatory procedures”, he said
The information available to InsideBusiness Online, however, revealed that the company intends to take on more MAPs in other to speed up the metering gap.
“In addition to consumer metering, Ikeja Electric has also metered all the 33kv /11kv feeders from the injection stations ensuring energy accountability across its delivery points. In addition, the local distribution transformers have also been metered up to 100 percent while the metering of newly installed transformers after completion of the project is ongoing” Ofulue noted.
He urged customers who are yet to apply for meters, to take advantage of the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme and apply through the IE portal map.ikejaelectric.com, using their Ikeja Electric’s account number on the bill to log into the portal and update their Know Your Customer (KYC) details.
He noted that Ikeja Electric has set up a debt resolution panel in the Six Business Units to address complaints on outstanding bills and other related issues to ensure reconciliation while customers are processing the application for meter.
In the same vein, he also explained that with the upward review of meter prices by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the new price for Single Phase Meter is now N48,263.37 while Three Phase Meter is now N89,069.33. All prices are inclusive of VAT and became effective from June 1, 2020.
However, customers who have paid before June 1, 2020 under the MAP scheme, but yet to be metered should forward their payment evidence stating Account Name, Application Reference Number (ARN) and IE Account Number [email protected] for prompt confirmation.
With regards to payment for meters, he stressed that “customers must always pay into the designated bank account provided by the MAP and they must always include their Application Reference Number (ARN) when making these payments, and also advised customers not to pay or give money to either Ikeja Electric staff or MAP for meter and installation.”
ELEGBEDE TAYO OREDOLA , a journalist with five years professional experience is self motivated and a team player. Her experience came from diverse media, like The Guardian Newspaper, Radio Nigeria among others and now with the INSIDEBUSINESS in the bid to explore the new media.
Email: [email protected]
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