The House of Representatives has fired a query to 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.
Chairman of the Joint Committee of the House probing the disbursement and utilisation of the loan, Uchenna Okonkwo, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said the committee also picked holes in the Meristem Wealth Management Limited and NESI–SSL for approving a company to get 0.5 percent of annual collections from electricity distribution companies until 2030.
The committee promised to invoke relevant constitutional provisions against anyone found obstructing the probe
“We have decided to carry out a full investigation with a view to addressing several anomalies in the electricity distribution sector,” Okonkwo said.
The federal legislator said further that the committee learnt that Nigerian electricity distribution companies comprising Federal Capital Territory, 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.
JESNews correspondent recalls that the country’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.
