Nigerian House of Representatives has passed the Bill seeking to criminalise estimated billing in the country.
This crucial bill was passed Tuesday after the lower legislative chamber considered the report of its committee on power sector.
The Bill aims to criminalise estimated billing and make the installation of prepaid meters compulsory for all power consumers in Nigeria.
Bill estimation is a standard practice used by power providers when an actual meter reading is not available for billing purposes.
Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsor of the bill and majority leader of the house, had said it was not justifiable to continuously charge consumers for power not consumed, TheCable writes.
Stakeholders in the power sector had kicked against the bill at a recent public hearing, saying the bill will worsen the country’s power problem.
Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) are among those to oppose the bill.
Fashola had argued that the bill could crumble the electricity sector since the financial challenges of metering had yet to be addressed.
“I take it that we all know what is core mandate. Their(DisCos) core mandate is to supply energy. My view is that let new players be licensed to have the supply of meters as their core mandate to take the load off the DisCos,” the minister said.
“Energy theft and meter bypass must be addressed too by prescribing heavy penalties against offenders.”