Uche Cecil Izuora
Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest electricity distribution company (DisCo), has conducted a two-day strategic meeting preparatory to a mass prepaid meter rollout.
The Power Distribution Company (DisCo), was earlier invited by the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on Power and Public Utilities to provide clarity on its recently reviewed tariff structure following the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) order last December 30 that it adjust its charges from January 1 to match the charges of the other 11 DisCos in Nigeria which became effective on April 4, 2024.
Held at the company’s headquarters in the Osisoma Industrial layout of Aba, the Abia State’s economic nerve centre, the two-day strategic meeting was attended by the top executives of Geometric Power, Aba Power’s parent firm.
“The Aba Power Managing Director, Barrister Ugo Opiegbe, led the meeting which had in attendance other Geometric Power executives like Professor Bart Nnaji, the company’s founder and chairman, illustrating the degree of importance the group attaches to the prepaid meter rollout plans”, declared Edise Ekong, the power utility’s Senior Brand and Communications Manager, in a statement.
Aba Power, which started the New Year with the kickoff of the installation of 11,000 meters supplied by 2 of its MAP partners, M E Meters located in Uturu, Abia State, and HAMPOC Utilities.
Aba Power also disclosed additional plans for mass metering in the Aba Ring-fenced Area comprising nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State, as it is scheduled to receive subsequent batches of meters this April under its Vendor-Financed Mass Metering Program. It plans to install 20,000 more this month and another 20,000 in May according to set criteria for prioritizing its 30 feeders. This will continue until all of its customers are fully metered.
“We are providing prepaid meters at a pace no one has seen in the country”, the Aba Power MD stated, disclosing that the 20,000 prepaid meters arriving this month are being airfreighted at a huge cost to us, but it underscores our commitment to the satisfaction of the Aba people who are famous for manufacturing”.
Barrister Ugo also revealed that Kayz Consortium, one of the four companies involved in the prepaid meter rollout, is setting up meter assembling facilities in the expansive Aba Power premises in Aba to ensure that this “firm produces 90,000 meters to Aba Ring-fence Area customers this year alone.
“The company’s chairman, Prince Kalu, is from Abia State, and he shares our vision of a fully metered Aba Ring-fenced Area within one year”.
Kalu, an Abuja-based entrepreneur, confirmed in an interview in Aba that his firm has mobilized foreign experts sent by the original equipment manufacturers to lead in the assembly of prepaid meters, adding: “We can’t afford to disappoint Aba Power, Professor Nnaji, and such stakeholders as large industrialists, and the current Abia State government led by Dr. Alex Otti. We were also in attendance during the public hearing conducted by the Abia State House of Assembly, where the Honourable House members insisted on a timeous meter rollout and a credible plan.
We are doing our best to ensure the trust placed on us by Aba Power and the Abia State House of Assembly, representing the people of Abia State, is sustained”.