FG To Sanction DisCos Selling Meters

Federal Government says it will sanction any electricity distribution company selling meters or asking Nigerians to pay money to get the item.

Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Ahmed Zakari, said this at a stakeholders’ engagement on electricity tariff, organised by the FGN/NLC-TUC Ad-hoc Committee.

Zakari said, “We have made it clear through the regulator’s direct order as well as the intervention from the Ministry of Power that these meters are to be provided to Nigerians at no cost.

“Even for meters that will be paid for through the MAP, there is a directive from the regulator to the discos that they need to find a way to reimburse citizens over time.

“If we find any disco or its representatives selling these meters or exploiting Nigerians to be able to get them, we will sanction such disco.”

According to him, the presidential directive is that meters should be made available to Nigeria free of charge and that they must be produced locally in order to create jobs and revive our industry.

Speaking further, the Minister of State for Power, Festus Keyamo, said that the committee had been working to achieve an equilibrium figure that would reflect the true price and value for the service of the electricity consumed.

“We are not working from answer to question but from question to answer.

“To ask if there will be an increase or a decrease is premature. What we are doing is a honest and open fact- finding. We want to question the rationale for the service reflective tariff,” he said.