Metering Solution Services begins roll out of prepaid meters in Akwa Ibom

…for Port Harcourt, Eko, Kano Discos

Metering Solution Manufacturing Services, a wholly indigenous manufacturing company in Awa, Akwa Ibom State has begun the roll out of prepaid meters for Port Harcourt (PHED), Eko (EKEDC) and Kano (KEDC) electricity distribution companies.

Adebisi Adeniyi, the chief executive officer of the company said with an installed capacity of 3 million prepaid meters annually, they are capable of meeting the needs of electricity consumers in the country.

In terms of metering solution, Adeniyi described his company as the biggest meter production firm in Africa.

“With a capacity of 3 million prepaid meters annually on a single shift, we are capable of producing 6 million prepaid meters; working in two shifts in a year. Our facility is clearly and arguably the biggest in Africa, in terms of metering solution. People always said we are the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa, but I have since come to realize that we are actually the biggest in Africa. That’s the truth,” Adeniyi said in an interview.

He said the company works in three major activities: assembling semi knocked-down components (SKDs) for two and three phase prepaid meters; injunction moulding for the manufacture of meter boxes that are mountable on electricity poles, and assembling SKDs into metal boxes – making the company a metering solution manufacturing outfit.

Nigeria, with poor electricity transmission and distribution system, is said to have a deficit of 20 million prepaid meters.

Meanwhile, Adeniyi disclosed that the company would soon add to its metering production, the manufacture of solar panels and low energy bulbs.

He listed Liberia and the Gambia as countries where his Metering Solution company is currently exporting its products.

The Metering Solution chief executive explained that Governor Udom Emmanuel had created an enabling environment for the company to invest in the electricity sector; adding that by some doing, jobs are being created for the youths to keep them away from restiveness and criminal tendencies.

Akwa Ibom, currently Nigeria’s biggest oil income earning state, is ironically the state with the highest unemployment rate of 37.7 percent by third quarter of 2018 (Q3 2018), and the second highest unemployed population of 1,357,754 in the same period, figures by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) say.

Adeniyi said, that Governor Emmanuel invited investors, advanced them with enabling environment in land, access roads and friendly government disposition.

He said the governor advanced to his company a 33 KVA sub-station that gives dedicated 24/7 power supply directly from Ibom Power; adding that the sub-station has drastically reduced the company’s resort to diesel powered generators.

According to him, the Akwa Ibom business environment has attracted between 12 to 13 companies to the state.