Prepaid metre producer wants direct sale of electricity to customers

Sabrud Consortium, an indigenous prepaid meter manufacturing company, has advised the Federal Government to allow producers to sell prepaid meters directly to electricity consumers.

Chief Bright Nwangwu, its Chairman, made the suggestion in Awka on Tuesday at the company’s Mandatory Compliance and Assessment Programme (MANCAP) certificate for its product.

Nwangwu said direct sale would go a long way in achieving the Federal Government’s objective to have all electricity consumers in Nigeria metered at the shortest possible time.

The chartered engineer said the direct sale and distribution of prepaid meters would increase efficiency in the power marketing and save customers from the nightmare of estimated billing.

He said that this would be the best way to solve the estimated billing problem and relieve the distribution companies of the task.

According to Nwangwu, prepaid meter producers have enough capacity to boost effectiveness in power distribution.

The firm thanked the Federal Government for approving the participation of indigenous firms in the manufacture of prepaid meters.

“We appeal to the Federal Government to allow prepaid meter manufacturing firms to sell directly to local customers.

“Prepaid metering is a crime in advanced countries it should be discouraged here; selling directly to customers will eliminate the practice.

“We also call on the Federal Government to enforce the local content policy in the sector which says that all government and private companies spend 80 per cent of their procured goods and services on indigenously manufactured meters,” he said.

Mr Chisom Nwangwu, the company’s Managing Director, assured that the firm was determined to help the Federal Government to achieve efficiency in the power sector through international best practices.

He said that the firm, which had one million installed capacity and 40 per cent utilisation rate alongside other manufacturers of the products, were capable of meeting the national customers’ demand and beyond.

He said the MANCAP certificate was obtained after rigorous process and promised to maintain the standard in order to compete favourably in the market.