The House of Representatives has queried the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, over the N59 billion, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, loan to electricity distribution companies for the execution of the National Mass Metering Programme, NMMP.
Uchenna Okonkwo, chairman of the Joint Committee of the House investigating the disbursement and utilisation of the loan, made this known in a statement on Sunday.
The committee also faulted Meristem Wealth Management Limited and NESI–SSL for approving a firm to receive 0.5 percent of annual collections from electricity distribution companies until 2030.
Okonkwo said NMMP – approved by the Federal Government in 2020 to close the metering gap in Nigeria – has faltered in achieving its objective.
The committee vowed to invoke relevant constitutional provisions against anyone found obstructing investigation.
“We have decided to carry out a full investigation with a view to addressing several anomalies in the electricity distribution sector,” Okonkwo said.
The lawmaker added that the committee gathered that Nigerian electricity distribution companies including Abuja, Ikeja, Eko, Enugu, Kano, and Jos discos are indebted to the CBN for disbursements made to them to install metres, but NERC has not verified the installations of those metres.
DAILY POST recalls that Nigeria’s metering gap stood at 7.2 million with only 6,288,624 electricity customers – representing 46.57 percent of the total 13,503,342 customers – registered with discos as of the end of 2024.
