By Segun Olabode, Lagos

The Ministry of Power has become the latest key sector of the economy to work towards replicating the success achieved with the implementation of Nigerian Content in the oil and gas industry to ensure that ongoing transformation in the sector and massive investments by governments and private sector entities are steered to develop the local supply chain and encourage indigenous manufacturing.

According to Section 3(2) of the Act, exclusive consideration is given to indigenous Nigerian service companies that demonstrate ownership of equipment, Nigerian personnel, and the ability to execute work on land and swamp.

Indigenous meter manufacturers have not been able to produce adequate meters, which indicates the current production capacity in this sector, thereby placing unmetered Nigerians in perpetual wait to possibly no end. Meter manufacturers, like other industrial manufacturers, have faced challenges ranging from retrogressive port systems, foreign energy crises, multiple taxations, and high energy costs.

In its bid to mollify these challenges, MOJEC International Limited, Nigeria’s leading manufacturing company and the largest meter manufacturer in Sub-Sahara Africa, moved into boosting the local capacity of meter production.

The organization is putting a lot of effort into place to bridge the metering gap of over six million unmetered consumers by expanding and boosting its capacity in metering production, leveraging on its wealth of technical and financial experience in the local production of electric meters, thereby demonstrating its robust contribution to the development of local content in the Nigerian power sector.

Metering requires a significant amount of effort in both production and logistics; it is not as simple as purchasing a mobile phone and having it work as soon as a sim card is inserted. Metering the Nigerian populace has been an upheaval in the National Electricity Supply Industry (NES). There have been several mass metering intervention programmes by the Federal government and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) since the inception of the electricity sector reform under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to bridge the metering gap.

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The majority of these interventions were funded by the Federal Government, which provided direct funding to selected meter companies to import and roll out prepayment meters to electricity consumers. Also provided by the Federal Government were monetary and fiscal incentives such as duty waivers, tax waivers, duty reductions, and concessional funding to local meter assemblers to stimulate the assembling of meters in Nigeria.

Before this time, there were huge factors affecting the local production of meters, as all the components for metering were imported and importation logistics were a major challenge. Getting cargo across the ports comes with challenges. Also, the lack of patronage by distribution companies was a challenge to local manufacturers.

Currently, MOJEC meters are smart and low-voltage city-operated meters, ranging from single-phase to three-phase meters. They are for personal and industrial use. They could be post-paid or pre-paid.

In order to reduce metering gap in Nigeria, MOJEC under its Mobile MAP initiative has continued to push to get more Nigerians metered through its meter penetration and partnership with DisCos across regional areas in the country.

This move would see customers provided with meters within 24 hours, also preventing them to fall prey of extortion from installers in the bid of helping them secure a meter.

MOJEC, as an industry leader in metering technology development, has reached a significant milestone in the local production of smart meters. Apart from manufacturing electricity meters, MOJEC is also in the business of manufacturing water and gas meters.

It is worthy of note that MOJEC’s painstaking effort in meter production has been able to help propagate the objectives of the FGN’s agenda, which include: increasing

Nigeria’s metering rate; increasing local meter manufacturing capacity to strengthen the local meter value chain; creating jobs in the local meter value chain, and supporting Nigeria’s economy by eliminating erratic billings.

In 2020, the Federal Government initiated the National Mass Metering Program in partnership with indigenous meter manufacturers, including MOJEC, following its demonstrated ability to boost the capacity and production of meters locally while hiring and equipping Nigerians with the requisite skills required in the electricity sector.

The government, through NERC, has commended MOJEC for the quality of infrastructure and facilities put in place to support the Federal Government’s intervention Initiative.

The NERC chairman, Professor James Momoh, stated that MOJEC has demonstrated the capacity to support the effort in bridging the metering gap and urged the company to keep working to support the Federal Government and NERC in providing best-in-class smart meters for consumers.

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The meter asset provider program is an initiative of the Federal Government under the Ministry of Power and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to bridge the metering gap to track the supply of meters to distribution companies and other customers.

MOJEC Meter Company pioneered the concept of smart metering technology in Nigeria by setting up a state-of-the-art electricity meter plant in the country with a production capacity of over 3million meters annually designed to handle the demands of energy customers.

MOJEC manufactures and supplies different types of meter ranging from single-phase meters, three-phase pre-payment meters, whole current meters, low voltage city-operated meters, credit meter/Pre-payment meters to HT metering Panel