The Association for Public Policy Analysis (APPA) has urged the federal government to investigate the N59.2bn given to the 11 Distribution Companies to purchase 1 million meters for their customers.

It would be recalled that the government had in 2020 announced a N200bn fund for the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) in 2020 with the first phase to provide one million meters.

But a statement signed by the National President of APPA, Chief Princewill Okorie, noted that only N56bn was eventually paid with N3bn unaccounted for, adding that only N7bn was paid by the DisCos from 2020 to 2024 as repayment of the loan.

“Are there no collections from end-users of electricity? If the purpose of the NMMP is to enhance collections and reduce losses, there is a need to verify the actual collections in monetary terms by DisCos, facilitated by deployment of NMMP meters to consumers through DisCos.”

He said there is a need for evidence on consumers that actually received meters under the NMMP scheme in DisCo franchise areas for transparency and accountability.

“The final issue is the need to find out the status of the NMMP loan in which N200 billion was to be provided in phases.

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He therefore, called on the national assembly to investigate the disbursement of funds which are loans to be repaid with account of the amount of money DisCos received for implementation of NMMP with evidence.

“The number of Consumers that benefitted in their franchise areas from the NMMP scheme and the amount of money generated from consumers who benefitted from NMMP from 2020 to 2024 to prove that NMMP achieved its objective of reducing losses and enhancing collections.