Meter Manufacturers and Assemblers Association of Nigeria (MMAAN) has urged the Federal Government to save the industry from catastrophic collapse.
Durosola Omogbenigun, Secretary of the Association, made the urgent appeal to the government to direct the Procurement Management Unit of the Transmission Company of Nigeria to review its recently advertised World Bank meter procurement bid for 1,250,000 electricity meters because the stringent pre-qualification conditions are out of reach for local manufacturers at a media briefing in Abuja.
According to Omogbenigun, the World Bank meter procurement bid is detrimental to the expansion of the local meter manufacturing sector since it reverses the advantages made through backward integration, knowledge transfer, and job creation.
The meter manufacturers further frowned at the decision of the Federal Government to use a World Bank loan of $155 million to support the importation of electricity meters into the country.
The manufacturers have insisted that implementing the policy would entail taking away jobs from Nigeria and importing poverty into the country.
Omogbenigun warned that if the bid is not reviewed downwards, indigenous meter manufacturers risk exclusion as they are still struggling to survive.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government in 2018, introduced the Meter Assets Regulations whereby private companies were invited to help the power distribution companies provide electricity meters for Nigerian consumers.
The major aim was to end the universally condemned estimated billing. In order to promote local content development, the Meter Asset Providers are required to source a minimum of 30 per cent of their contracted metering volumes from local meter manufacturing companies.
He went on to say that the country has roughly 40 indigenous meter makers, which create jobs and provide value to the economy. He said that the country has a metering gap of roughly 10 million, adding that meters supplied by local manufacturers have been inspected and proven to match international standards.