The Federal Government says electricity consumers who paid for meters under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme, will have a refund of their money.
According to a report from Punch, this disclosure was made by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in an email statement, through its Head Public Affairs, Mr Michael Faloseyi, on Wednesday, December 30, 2020.
Following the recent announcement by the Federal Government that six million meters would be distributed at no cost to consumers under the National Mass Metering Programme, some customers who had already paid for meters had asked if their money would be refunded.
Under the MAP scheme, which kicked off on May 1, 2019, customers have two options for acquiring a meter: upfront payment and payment in instalments through metering service charge on a monthly basis.
However, the But the scheme has suffered setbacks, including changes in fiscal policy and the limited availability of long-term funding, according to the regulator.
The regulator said that all power distribution companies (Discos) had keyed into the NMMP initiative, adding, “Meter deployments are commencing in earnest across all Discos under the first phase of the NMMP.”
The commission said the first rollout of meters had already started based on meters that were already available at the warehouses of the Discos and meter asset providers.
On if the consumers would later bear the cost of meters, NERC said, “Given that all prudent costs are borne by customers, the full cost of metering would form part of the tariff once the industry assumes full cost recovery.”
“All customers who made payment for meters under the MAP scheme would be refunded. The modality for the refund of the meter’s cost funded by the customers either through upfront payment or amortized payments is being worked out.”
