FCCPC Halts Costly Meter Replacement for Nigerians

On a stakeholder engagement in Abuja, Tunji Bello, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), revealed that the commission intervened to stop a planned replacement of obsolete prepaid electricity meters. This decision came after public concerns that consumers might be forced to pay for the replacement of meters that had become obsolete through no fault of their own.

The FCCPC collaborated with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) to ensure that consumers would not incur additional costs or experience estimated billing during the replacement process. Bello emphasized that the replacement exercise was suspended pending compliance with regulatory requirements, a stance supported by both NERC and NEMSA.

The resolution was based on NERC’s order regarding the Structured Replacement of Faulty and Obsolete End-user Customer Meters, which guarantees that consumers would not pay for replacements or suffer supply interruptions.