13 September 2011, Sweeetcrude, Abuja- Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji says estimated electricity billing as currently carried out by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria will be stopped to ensure that consumers pay for what they consume.
Speaking at this year’s Nigeria International Power Expo in Abuja, the minister said the need to jettison estimated billing stemmed from the plans to provide pre-paid meters for electricity consumers.
He noted that electricity consumers were always worried since estimated billing never tallied with their actual consumption.
“Metering is very important and people are worried that sometimes, they get estimated billing and the estimated billing wouldn’t conform at all to their consumption and we want to wipe that out in the country,” said the minister.
To secure credit for the power bulk trader, which hitherto was not credit worthy, Nnaji said the World Bank had met in Washington for two weeks, where it identified the challenges in the power sector.
The meeting, he said, became necessary because the World Bank was the vehicle with which Nigeria could provide partial risk guarantee required by the bulk trader in the power sector.
According to him, without the bulk trader, there would be no partial risk guarantee in the sector.
