The Federal Authorities has put aside N700 billion to implement the distribution of free electrical energy meters beneath the Presidential Metering Initiative.
The quantity being deducted from the month-to-month federation income earlier than allocation to the three tiers of presidency is designed to resolve the metering hole which presently stands at 50 per cent.
An evaluation of the Federal Account Allocation Committee assembly minutes obtained by our correspondent between April and August confirmed that the federal government has saved N420bn from a month-to-month deduction of N100bn.
Recall that N120bn was deducted from April income as the primary tranche of the PMI.
This implies a complete of N420bn has been deducted from the federation account for this initiative.
In Could this 12 months, the Minister of Energy, Adebayo Adelabu, mentioned the federal government would supply an preliminary N75bn as seed capital, whereas the Nigerian Sovereign Funding Authority pledged to inject a minimal of N250bn yearly for the initiative’s length.
Adelabu additionally disclosed that the initiative would leverage debt financing from numerous monetary establishments to bolster the PMI’s assets.
The Managing Director of Abuja Distribution Electrical energy Distribution Firm, Victor Ojelabi, just lately mentioned that the PMI would unlock about N1tn in income presently tied up within the Nigerian Electrical energy Provide Trade attributable to a lot of unmetered prospects.
Underneath the initiative, the Nigerian Electrical energy Regulatory Fee introduced the approval of N21bn for the 11 electrical energy Distribution Firms to offer meters for end-use prospects at zero price.
Offering an replace on the problem in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, the Particular Adviser to the Minister of Energy on Strategic Communications and Media, Bolaji Tunji, affirmed that the programme was nonetheless heading in the right direction with a goal to ship two million meters yearly.
Tunji revealed that the quantity saved had reached N700bn, including that procurement had began.
He mentioned, “The Presidential Metering Initiative remains to be heading in the right direction, two million meters yearly, supply of the primary batch will begin by the primary quarter of subsequent 12 months. About N700bn provision has been made, and the cash is prepared.”
Tunji additional revealed that the federal government would fulfil its promise to ship 1.3 million out of the three.2 million meters beneath the World Financial institution Distribution Sector Reform Programme initiative this month.