The House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its committee on power to investigate the failure of electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to replace obsolete metres and improve infrastructure, including the persistence, reliance on consumer contributions for maintenance and equipment replacement.

The House equally urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to ensure strict enforcement of the directive to electricity distribution companies to replace obsolete metres at no cost to consumers within a specified time frame.

The House also called on the minister of power to prioritise funding and incentives for upgrading electricity infrastructure, especially transformers, to reduce load-shedding and improve service delivery across the country.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance by Rep Nnamdi Ezechi, on the need to address metering crisis and associated challenges in the electricity distribution sector in Nigeria.

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Moving his motion, Rep Ezechi raised concerns over the ongoing metering crisis in the country, particularly the failure of electricity distribution companies to replace obsolete metres as recently mandated by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). 

Ezechi informed the House that many Nigerians who applied for metre upgrades months ago have not had their metres replaced, leaving them to resort to costly alternatives, such as paying over N200,000 for new metres, or facing exorbitant charges for direct connections, which could cost up to N500,000 for a few days.

The House, while adopting the motion, directed electricity disribution companies to create accessible and transparent systems for metre upgrade and replacement with penalty for non-compliance to prevent exploitation of consumers.