MOJEC International Limited, in conjunction with Ikeja Distribution Company (IKEDC), has developed automated payment reference system with PayStack and Remita through which electricity customers can initiate payment for their meters.This not only simplifies payment for consumers and facilitates the Federal Government’s mass metering project, but also boosts transparency and accountability in the industry. COLLINS NWEZE writes that the integration of digital payment into meter acquisition has strengthened the integrity of the financial system and created opportunity for more Nigerians to access financial services.
Though the Federal Government has made several attempts to ensure that more Nigerians acquire electricity meters, the latter faced one major challenge: complex infrastructure to pay for their meters.
Another is the issue of funding, which prompted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide loans to the electricity distribution companies and local meter manufacturers to ensure that maters are available.
But all these have changed with MOJEC International Limited’s partnership with Ikeja Distribution Company (IKEDC) for the development of an automated payment reference system with PayStack and Remita.
PayStack in its website says: “Give your customers the gift of modern, frictionless, painless payments. Integrate Paystack once and let your customers pay you, however, they want.”
It added: “We automatically route payments through the most optimal channels, ensuring the highest transaction success rates in the market.”
Remita makes secure payments to suppliers, vendors, staff and other billers into their accounts in any bank or mobile wallets, around-the-clock, including after official work hours, weekends and public holidays, it says.
This payment reference systems adopted by MOJEC and IKEDC enable their customers to initiate payment for their meters and complete the transaction easily.
The journey so far
Findings have showed that metering electricity consumers has remained a serious challenge in the electricity market as utility companies struggle to fill the gap eight years after the sector was handed over to private investors.
Data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has shown that of the country’s 12.8 million customers, no fewer than 8.1 million of them are unmetered.
NERC said only about 4.66 million end-users, representing 36 per cent of customers, had been fully metered at last November.
To solve this challenge, the Federal Government launched the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), an initiative geared towards mass metering of Nigerians by providing loan facility from the CBN led by Godwin Emefiele, to the DisCos for the procurement of meters for its customers, and the local meter manufacturers.
This is to ensure that it provides over four million meters as estimated billing encourages a lack of transparency and accountability, worsening tariff collection.
Prior to this, distribution companies across the country had stopped providing free meters to consumers, following a directive from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which increased the price of the assets and contributed to the delay in the commencement of the NMMP.
In the first phase of the NMMP called Phase Zero, over one million meters were estimated to be deployed in about six months, but the process was delayed as prevailing challenges crippled the roll-out of the assets. At the end of the phase, over a million meters were reportedly distributed.
However, to tackle the problem in the second phase of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), which continued to push the burden of electricity meters on consumers, NERC announced the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) and National Mass Metering Regulations.
To ensure that the Federal Government’plans to end the metering challenges, MOJEC International, a pioneer in local meter manufacturing, is ensuring that unmetered electricity consumers have access to meters.
To achieve this, the company launched the Mobile Meter Asset Provider (MOJEC Mobile MAP) initiative. The initiative was to simplify the processes involved in meter acquisition and ensures that customers get metered within 24 hours.
Group Managing Director, MOJEC International Limited, Ms. Chantelle Abdul, in a statement, said the initiative was to bring meters to consumers.
She reiterated MOJEC’s commitment to provide meters to the end-users because metering is critical to the consumers and the electricity providers. This commitment comprises establishing trust between the consumers and the distribution companies. MOJEC will also manufacturer over 100,000 meters for the business units under the Ikeja DISCO for the Mobile MAP.
Launched in April, the Mobile MAP initiative, in partnership with Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IEDC) and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), was to fast-track 24-hour meter delivery to through the MAP Initiative.
This is by extension a continuation of Phase 2 of the NERC approved ‘MAP’ initiative, that has adopted as mantra “metering at your doorstep” aimed at consolidating the rigorous meter installation that includes KYC, survey, payment, acquisition and installation under 48 hours.
Team Lead, MOJEC, Titilope Oyelade, said during the launch of the scheme at the Sango business unit in Ogun State recently, that the Mobile MAP initiative would run for the next two months across the various business units of the nine DisCos with whom the MOJEC partners.
She said each DisCo is expected to meter at least 100,000 customers under the initiative. Oyelade added that MOJEC initiated the Mobile MAP scheme in response to calls by consumers who want pre-paid meters to save them from the menace of estimated billings and other under-table dealings by some unsrupulous staff members of the distribution firms.
She explained that the process of meter acquisition had been so simplified that all customers needed to do was to register on their DisCo’s website.
It was gathered that there would be over 10,000 meters available monthly to customers at the Sango Ota axis and that the exercise would be continuous as long as consumers make demands for the meters.
The total number of meters distributed in MAP Phase 2 is 96,552.
IBEDC Business Manager, Sango Unit, Olujide Odutuyo, said the firm partnered MOJEC because of its desire to make pre-paid meters available to consumers.
On his part, Michael Onuorah, head of Metering Projects, MOJEC, said to deal with the challenge of extortion, MOJEC and Ikeja DisCo developed the automated payment system.
“This promotes transparency and accountability. We believe it will hasten the Federal Government’s mass metering agenda.”
Smart metering allows electricity consumers to manage their consumption and eradicate outrageous estimated billing. It also beneûts electricity distribution companies by providing revenue protection services, detecting energy and bypass incidents, and issuing reports for events of tampering.
Manager, Shomolu Business Unit, Ikeja Electric, Oluyemi Ayanga, said; “Consumers are happy because they can manage what they are consuming in terms of electricity for the month, and this would improve their level of trust. With this, the customers are satisfied and when they are, I am also satisfied.” It is worthy of note that MOJEC International, last year, partnered Sahara Foundation, Energy Training Centre and Ikeja Electric to train several metering personnel through an end-user Metering Capacity Building programme in Lagos.
The deal was part of efforts to improve and reinforce competence in the industry.
According to MOJEC, this is consequential to enhancing performance.
It said this would lead to an increase in revenue collection, which in turn, would bolster transmission and distribution capacity in addition to significant capital expenditure improvements.
