A total of 525,120 meters were deployed and installed in the premises of power users under the various franchise areas of the 11 power distribution companies between January 2019 and November 2020.

An analysis of the November 2020 report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on meter deployment across electricity distribution companies also showed that the Discos contracted 7,588,972 meters during the period.

Further findings showed that in 2019, a total of 122,737 meters were installed across the franchise operational areas of the Discos.

In the first, second and third quarters of 2020, the total number of meters installed were 103,780; 67,746; and 125,311 respectively.

Also in October and November 2020, the number of meters deployed were 39,975 and 65,571 respectively.

It was observed that the meters were deployed under the Federal Government’s National Mass Metering Programme and Meter Asset Provider scheme.

For meters deployed under the NMMP, the report showed that a total of 16,308 meters were installed in the premises of customers through the programme.

The NMMP started in October 2020 and 1,958 meters were deployed in that month, while 14,350 meters were installed in November.

For the MAP scheme, a total of 508,812 meters were deployed from January 2019 to November 2020.

The highest number of meter deployment of 125,311 under the MAP scheme during the review period was recorded in the third quarter of 2020.

The MAP and NMMP schemes were introduced by the Federal Government to increase the number of metered electricity users and cut down on the level of estimated billing in the power sector.