Estimated billing: Edo govt, BEDC to meter 500,000 houses

By Jethro Ibileke

The Edo State Government has struck a deal with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), to provide prepaid electricity meters to about 500,000 houses across the three senatorial districts the state.

The State Commissioner for Mining, Energy, Oil and Gas, Enaholo Ojiefo disclosed this shortly after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the management of BEDC in his office on Friday.

The management of BEDC was represented at the signing ceremony by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Pastor Kings Akuma and the Managing Director/CEO of BEDC, Mr Deolu Ijose.

He said the deal which takes effect from Wednesday next week, is aimed at eliminating the problem of estimated billing.

Ojiefo stated that the project every house covered under the deal is expected to be installed with the government-subsidized meter.

According to him, the state government is desirous to eliminate the problem of estimated billing, hence, it decided to embark on the project.

The Commissioner further disclosed that the meters were covered by insurance policy and subscribers were expected to get their meters from the very day they made payment and not later than 10 days.

He noted that subscribers were expected to log in the payment portal as from on the 14 August and that as soon as the payment was made, the subscriber would get his or her meter.