Metering will reduce losses for power firms – Suswam

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, has said the national mass metering programme will reduce collection losses for Distribution Companies (DisCos) as customers will vend tokens to have power supply.

Sen. Suswam who spoke at the flag off of the programme in Kaduna, said, “We expect that there should be a corresponding obligation on the part of the service providers and consumers. For the DisCos to provide the service, it must be paid for; so the customers have to pay for services.”

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Kaduna Electric rolled out 80,000 prepaid meters as part of an initiative to target one million customers in three years.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kaduna Electric, Alhaji Yusuf Abubakar, urged customers to pay for electricity services.

“We have to pay them; and also us who are distributing to our customers. If we are not paid, we cannot pay the upstream and if the upstream is not paid, the service cannot be provided.”

Reacting to the issuance of meters, the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Kaduna, Comrade Aruba Suleiman, said labour had been advocating for mass metering so as to jettison estimated billing.

He therefore appealed to customers to settle their bills and ensure that they stopped any illegality, especially as it concerned bypassing of electricity.