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Pre-Paid Meters: Ikeja DISCO Launches CAPMI Scheme

President, PHCCIMA, Engr Emeka Unachukwu (right) conferring with 1st Deputy President, PHCCIMA, Dr Renny Cookey, during a membership induction in Port Harcourt, recently.
The management of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company on Tuesday said that it would introduce a Credit Advance Payment for Metering Installation (CAPMI) scheme to customers within the zone.
Mr Pekun Adeyanju, the Assistant General Manager (Public Affairs), of the Ikeja DISCO, confirmed to newsmen that the new scheme would begin this Friday.
Adeyanju said that the zone would partner with six local meter manufacturers to begin the CAPMI.
The spokesman said that the programme was an intervention scheme by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to address the challenge of estimated billing of customers.
According to him, the scheme is designed to fill the gap created by the old metering system, as contained in the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) II.
Adeyanju also said that the programme would ensure that customers of PHCN willing to pay in advance, would get prepaid meters, within a maximum of 45 days.
“When a customer credits our account with N25, 000 for a single-phase meter, he will get metered between two days and 45 days.
“This interval includes days of inspection of where the meter would be installed, so as to avoid diversion or hoarding,” he said.
Adeyanju said that the scheme was meant for customers to pay upfront, for the purchase of the meter.
He explained that the cost of the meter would be refunded to the customers through a billing process, spreading over three years and at 12 per cent interest.
It would be recalled that the regulatory body of the power sector (the NERC), had ordered that all DISCOs should commence the CAPMI scheme, in order to close the gap of meter shortage in the country.