BY REBECCA AJANI
THE Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), has commenced the distribution of a total of 104,000 free meters to residents.
This, it said, was aimed at accelerating the rate of metering in the country and eliminating estimated billing, in line with the National Mass Metering Programme initiative of the Federal Government.
The metering initiative, IBEDC said, was designed to ensure a seamless metering process that would allow customers to register and be metered quickly after following due process.
Head, Customers Support, IBEDC, Ayo Adio, during a press briefing on Wednesday, said attempts to cut corners in a bid to get the meters would fail, and assured that everything had been put in place to ensure a smooth process.
“We are here to launch the National Mass Metering for the Federal Government. These are free meters, so customers are not paying for them. The essence is to discourage estimated billing that a lot of customers have been complaining about. We believe that within a few weeks, most of the customers that are designated for meters would have it installed in their premises,” Adio said.
He added, “We have our distribution strategy so that it would not depend on ‘man know man’. It will be such that areas that have been designated would be metered as they are supplied. The customers that don’t have meters on the transformer would all fully be metered before we move to the next stage.
“You won’t have the opportunity of getting connected through any senior officer. It is an organised way of meeting our customers’ needs. There is nothing anybody can do to fast-track it.”
According to him, this is the first batch of one million free meters.
“What we have for Ibadan DISCO is 104,000. As we take delivery within the next few weeks, we will distribute to our customers. Under this system, it is not possible for any of our staff to be mischievous because we are going to keep track as we meter any customer. It will get everywhere. People just have to be patient.
“The strategy that we have employed is to look at a particular area and meter all the customers that are unmetered. Our focus is on people who don’t have meters. We can meter those with faulty meters. There is no point changing analogue meters that are not faulty.”
He noted that the era of paying for meters had passed, and assured that those who had paid but had yet to be metered would be refunded through the conversion of their money to units.
