95% Power Meters Poorly Installed – Expert

About 95 per cent of
the meters in the country are said to be poorly installed.
An expert and the Managing Director, Ortech Nigeria Limited, George Garbi disclosed this at a public consultation and fact finding mission on the credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) held in Yola, Adamawa State last week.
He said, “Ninety-five per cent of meters in Nigeria are poorly installed. Proper installation of meters needs quality service cables which are costly”.
Garbi who called for a review of metering fees said the reason why the meters were badly installed was because the current price does not encourage the use of costly and superior quality materials.
Speaking at the event which was organised by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NEC) he said when the metering fees is reviewed upward, it would encourage installers to use quality materials that could stand the test of time.
The Director, Marketing and Consumer Affairs, Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), Mr. Victor Risina, said the company had received a total of 1,625 applications for prepared meters since June 2014 and that efforts were on to get greater number of power consumers to be metered.
He disclosed that at the onset,  they discovered that pre-paid system was outdated and could not allow for refund of the fixed charges hence the company was forced to go for an upgrade of pre-paid system, adding that the company targets full system upgrade this year.