The decision of the Federal Government to commission the supply and installation of smart electricity meters to the 11 electricity distribution companies have sparked fresh controversy as indigenous meter manufacturers have kicked against the move.
The meter manufacturers under the aegis of the Association of Meter Manufactures of Nigeria(AMMON) said the move was capable of sinking the over N500 million investment by AMMON member companies if the deal was allowed to sail through.
According to a protest letter to the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE) signed by the President and Secretary of AMMON, Messers Ademola Agoro and Duro Omogbenigun, warned further that the decision could also lead to massive jobs losses in the industry that currently employs over 10,000 Nigerians in direct employment and more than 30,000 others in indirect labour with competitive wages comparable to the communications sector.
AMMON further warned that the ongoing tender for World Bank funded bid for the supply and installation of smart meters to DisCos in Nigeria which closes on July 11, 2023(tomorrow) if left to continue, would amount to a constructive breach of the award of contract(s) for the supply of Four Million meters under Phase One of the National Mass Metering Programme(NMMP) already awarded to some of our members since November, 2022 by TCN, a bid process that it claimed that the BPE approved.
The letter to BPE by AMMON reads in part ‘‘You may note that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) recently advertised a World Bank funded bid process forthe supply of 1.2 million smart meters to DisCos in Nigeria. That your office be aware that this particular bid process is being opened to foreign companies (Manufacturers, Suppliers & Exporters) of fully-built electricity meters with planned Custom duty waiver granted to them to import meters into Nigeria.
These importers, who are primarily foreigners, have yet to make a verifiable investment in the backward integration programme of the Federal Government, nor have they made any investment in local manufacturing and assembling of meters in Nigeria, which has always been the standard requirements for Meter Assets Providers (MAP) in Nigeria to show proof of investments in the backward integration and must have Meter Assembling/Manufacturing Plants and factories in Nigeria. You may further be reminded that TCN and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission(NERC) under Phase 1 of NMMP Project of the Federal Government, a bidding process that your office supervised and gave a “Letter of No Objection to”, awarded four million meters to the local meter manufacturers in 2022.
As a result of backward integration, our members, scaled up their production capacities by obtaining facilities from the Banks to meet with the supplies of these meters to the distribution companies. We readied to supply these meters before government abandoned the awards already made to our members and advertised the World Bank-funded international procurement for 1.2 million meters under Phase 2 which the requirements are majorly in favour of foreign companies,’’.
AMMON maintained that while it appreciates the good intentions of TCN and NERC to achieve the mass metering of Nigerians and bridge the metering gap in the sector towards solving the nation’s electricity problems, it also wish to state that such good intention should be executed while taking into consideration, the sanctity of contracts, the present economic state of Nigeria where it can’t continue to import fully-manufactured products but make policies that encourage building local production capacity to create employment for our teeming youthful population.
Leave a Reply