Kunle Kalejaye 28 October 2014, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The management of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, IKEDC, said it has discovered about 36,000 cases of pre-paid meter by-pass within it network.
The company lamented that the nefarious practice by mischievous customers posed serious challenge to its operations as the compactivities of the energy thieves was causing inadequate power supply and loss of revenue.
To tackle the menace, Managing Director of IKEDC, Engr. Abiodun Ajifowobaje, said the company has concluded plans to supply about 500,000 pre-paid meters to its customers in the next three years.
Engr Ajifowobaje who disclosed this during the inspections of the management team to the company’s customer forum interaction meeting held in 15-business districts units in Lagos said customers currently billed but without meters will benefit.
Ajifowobaje said the official roll out for the meters will commence before December.
The IKEDC boss said that this robust methodology plan will address all challenges facing bye-passing of meter by customers.
He explained that additional security will be added to the new pre-paid meters to be installed in areas known for meter tampering
“Our first phase plan is to ensure that about 300,000 pre-paid meter is roll out by December, while about 500,000 to 600,000 meters would to be installed and replaced faulty ones in the next three years.
According to him, the company has also centralised its billing system to ensure accurate billing and introduced the automatic meter reading system which drives remote access to meters for efficiency and effective monitoring.
