Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has so far met over 25 per cent of its 90,870 metres target under the first phase of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), which is to be concluded in the next three months.
This was disclosed by BEDC corporate affairs manager, Mr Tayo Adekunle, at the end of a town hall meeting on Facilitating Metering and Combating Electricity Theft in BEDC States organised by Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN) in Benin City, Edo State.
At the event, Mr Adekunle said the firm was implementing NNMP in its four franchise states – Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo – to eliminate estimated billing.
“BEDC is now installing meters on the pole for customers in bands A, B and C as the initial focus to curtail energy theft and meter bypass while the company has also begun community metering where transformers of over 600 communities have been metered so far,” Mr Adekunle said.
Mr Adekunle, who expressed satisfaction with the growing joint efforts by communities in combating electricity theft in the BEDC coverage areas, noted that metering under NNMP is free, adding that customers do not have to pay while BEDC and industry stakeholders can sue and be sued on account of electricity theft and consumer rights violation.
“The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) is carrying out electricity consumer education and interfacing between customers and DisCos for complaints resolution”, he said.
The NMMP is a metering initiative introduced by the federal government geared towards mass metering of Nigerians by providing loan facility to the DisCos (for the procurement of meters for its customers); and the local meter manufacturers (for the manufacturing and assembling of meters).
BEDC is responsible for the retail distribution of electricity in Delta, Edo, Ekiti, and Ondo States with geographical coverage of 55,770 square kilometres. The company operates from 25 business districts with approximately 350 offices located across the four states with about 13 million people and about 4 million households.
The DisCo is the 4th largest in distribution capacity and 3rd largest in the number of households among the Distribution Companies (Discos) in Nigeria.
BEDC is strategically located and uniquely positioned to maximize the opportunities that may arise as Nigeria’s power trading market becomes more competitive and liberalized, as there are a number of major power generations and transmission hubs located within the area.
