Nigeria needs N295bn to tackle meter deficit – Expert

About N295 billion is needed to address the huge meter deficit in Nigeria, the Executive Director, Association of Nigerian Distributors (ANED), Comrade Sunday Oduntan, has said.
Nigeria, a country which an estimated population of 190 million people is said to have a 4.1 million meter deficit.
This, some experts have attributed it to one of the challenges bedeviling the country’s power sector.
But Oduntan, who spoke recently in Abeokuta, Ogun state, at a stakeholders’ forum organised by the Ogun House of Assembly, said the situation could be assuaged with the injection of N295bn into the power sector.
The fund, he said would be utilized by the DisCos to provide three-phase prepaid and postpaid meters at the rate of N73,000 per unit.
On how to have stable and constant power supply, he said that the country must generate at least 180,000 megawatts of electricity, adding that power generation was too low nationwide.
He urged the federal government to step up efforts to generate more megawatts with a view to satisfying the power needs of Nigerians.
According to Oduntan, South Africa with a population of 67 million is currently generating 48,000 megawatts against the 39,000 megawatts the country needs.
Oduntan, who decried Nigeria’s failure to generate at least 20,000 megawatts, however, praised the Muhammadu Buhari administration for increasing power generation to 5,150 megawatts, the highest in the country since 1980.
In his address, the Speaker of Ogun state House of Assembly, Hon. Suraj Adekunbi, explained that the forum was organised to give opportunity to various stakeholders to air their views on electricity supply.
Adekunbi said the input of all stakeholders was needed to ensure that power consumers enjoy commensurate service.