The management of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, on Wednesday said it has kick started the distribution of 104,000 free meters within its franchise areas.
The free meter distribution was done under the Federal Government Mass National Metering Scheme in which a total of one million meters are being rolled out across the country for the first batch.
According to the Head, Customers Support of IBEDC, Mr Ayo Adio, electricity consumers are warned against lobbying or cutting corners to get meters.
Adio said, “We are here to launch the National Mass Metering for the Federal Government. These are free meters so customers are not paying for it. The essence is to discourage estimated billing that a lot of customers have been complaining about. We believe that within few weeks, most of the customers that are designated for meters would have it installed in their premises.
“We have our distribution strategy so that it would not depend on ‘man know man.’ It will be such that areas that have been designated would be metered as they are supplied.
“Customers that don’t have meters on the transformer would all fully be metered before we move to the next. You won’t have the opportunity of getting connected through any senior officer. It is an organised way of meeting our customers’ needs. There is nothing anybody can do to fast track it.
“This is the first batch of one million free meters. What we have for Ibadan DISCO 104,000. As we take delivery within the next few weeks, we would distribute to our customers.
Under this system, it is not possible for any of our staff to be mischievous because we are going to keep track as we meter any customer. It will get everywhere. People just have to be patient.
“The strategy that we have employed is to look at a particular area and meter all the customers that are unmetered. Our focus is on people who don’t have meters. We can meter those with faulty meters. There is no point to change analogue meters that are not faulty.”
The IBEDC official stated that the period when meters were paid for had passed adding that those who paid earlier without being metered would be refunded by converting their money to unit.
