Yemisi Izuora
An Indigenous smart pre-paid meter producer Mojec International Limited, has reaffirmed the quality of its smart prepaid meters, describing its products as ‘best in class’ in terms of quality, meeting both national and international quality standards.
The company is reaffirming the quality of its products in the wake of a recent allegations raised on the floor of the House of Representatives during plenary entitled, “Need to Curb Excessive Electricity Charges Being Levied on Consumers by Distribution Companies (DISCOs), Through Prepaid Meters,” and published in some news medium bothering on the quality of meters manufactured by the company.
Responding to the allegation, the Managing Director of the Company, Chantelle Abdul stated that the company has remained true to its value of delivering world-class quality meters to consumers.
“Mojec would like to unequivocally state that our smart prepaid meters are ‘best-in-class’ in terms of quality. All our prepaid smart meters (from the single phase meters to our three phase meters) meet all the national and international quality standards, and have been duly tested and certified by all regulatory bodies including the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA),” Abdul said.
“We always ensure that our meters undergo rigorous internal quality control and testing before they are deployed to users. Our role in the value chain is to produce world class meters for the purpose of capturing energy consumption by customers and billing by DISCOs and as such we are not directly involved in setting tariff.
Abdul also noted that this was not the first time that the allegation would be levelled against Mojec saying that the company has risen to the occasion to reassure customers of quality of its meters. “Sometimes ago, the Residents’ Association of Victoria Gardens City (VGC) had once reported similar issues. As a company, we engaged them to reassure them of our world-class quality and standard meters.
“VGC resident association executives as well as their technical team were invited to witness the routine test process of our meters at the meter test station in NEMSA, Oshodi, Lagos. The results of the test proved that our meters are not responsible for any form of rip off on the customers,” She explained.
Abdul further noted that while Mojec is aware that there might be instances of meter manipulation on the part of consumers with the objective to rip off DISCOs, Mojec stands bold to say that their installers are not involved in this. “We have established a stiff internal regulation that ensures any staff of ours caught in such act is legally dealt with. All of our company’s well-trained installers have continuously exhibited a high level of professionalism and would not connive with customers to adjust or fiddle with the meters installed.
“We have also noticed that there are instances where customers are being rubbed off the value of their electricity meter recharges by deceitful domestic wards or mall/store sales representatives who cheat them by recharging less than the amount paid for,” she explained, giving the instance of a domestic home assistant who had been consistently rubbing off his master for months by recharging only one thousand naira every time he is send to recharge the electricity meter with twenty thousand naira.
“He got away with this deceitful practice until one day, his master requested for the meter’s backlog from the disco and discovered his theft,” she said.
“At Mojec, we place premium on quality and standard. We value the satisfaction of customers and cannot in any way do anything to shortchange them or the DISCOs,” Abdul affirmed.
Abdul also dismissed the claim that the company’s meters were responsible for high electricity bills stating that tariff and charges lies within the purview of the DISCOs and the government only.
She affirmed that the company would continue to adhere to standard by providing quality meters to consumers urging Nigerians to adjust their culture of electricity consumption by monitoring their electricity consumption and ensuring that their prepaid meters are not allowed to run indiscriminately as the alleged rip off might have been caused by such actions.