14 December 2016, Sweetcrude, Kaduna – The Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has called on electricity distribution companies or Discos in the country to patronise indigenous manufacturers of energy meters in order to support local industries.
Senator Abaribe made the call in Kaduna during the Committee’s oversight visit to Kaduna Electric.
According to him, the electricity distribution companies must key into the on-going efforts to turn around the nation’s industrial sector.
A press statement by the Head, Corporate Communications of Kaduna Electric, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, quoted Abaribe as stating that the current wide spread complaints about metering would be drastically reduced if the distribution companies source their meters locally. “Sourcing meters locally will fasten the Discos meters deployment processes, support our industries, grow the economy and above all, lessen the present foreign exchange challenges”, he contended.
Abaribe also commended the management of Kaduna Electric for the efforts made so far by the company to improve on its operations. He particularly expressed satisfaction with the meters deployment programme currently being undertaking by the company in Kaduna, Kebbi and Sokoto states.
He also directed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to make available to the committee the audited accounts of all the distribution companies as soon as possible.
Earlier, the Chief Engineering and Technical Services Officer of Kaduna Electric, who stood in for the Managing Director/CEO, Engineer Bello Musa, disclosed that the company has procured fifty thousand meters and the deployment of these meters was currently going-on in all the company’s franchise states. He also announced that another batch of fifty thousand meters was being expected.