DISCOs assure local meter manufacturers of patronage

Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors (ANED) on Friday assured local meter manufacturers of its members’ readiness to patronise the product to grow local contents.

Sunday Oduntan, executive director of the association, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to him, three out of 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) are currently patronising the indigenous meter manufacturers in the country.

He added that Discos purchased all the CAPMI meters from local meter manufacturers.

Oduntan said that Discos would have wished to patronise local manufacturers from the beginning of the privatisation if their prices were competitive and if they had the ability to do vendor financing.

“The issue of metering is tied with payment; it is tied to money, if we do not have money, how do we buy cash and carry?”

“We are more than ready to patronise our local manufacturers. I know of three Discos that fully patronised them presently.

“We are aware that they put more into the production. Even our banks are not helping the situation because they are not financing these metering projects.

“We want the local content to grow and we are willing to partner with them and patronise them in the interest of Nigeria,” he said.

The executive director said that another area affecting local manufacturers was the bank interest rates.

“Also some foreign partners are ready to collect money installmentally after it has been installed for consumers in Nigeria,” he said.

Oduntan said, “It is in our interests to patronise our local manufacturers and I assure Nigerians that we will do that.”

The executive director said that Discos had installed at least 2.2 million households out of over five million households metering gap inherited after privatisation of defunct PHCN.

Also, the Executive Secretary of Electricity Meter Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (EMMAN), Muyideen Ibrahim, said most of its members had to retrench some of their staff because they could not sustain them due to poor patronage.

EMMAN also complained that the low patronage by electricity distribution companies (Discos) could result in non-sustainability of its business. (NAN)