By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
Nigerian Meter Manufacturers and Assemblers have intensified their call on the federal government to step in and suspend the bid by the World Bank Project Monitoring Unit, PMU, of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, for supply of 1,250,000 smart meters for eleven (11) DisCos in the country.
This is coming as various measures put in place by the federal government towards ensuring that electricity consumers in the country are smart metered 100 per cent to curb to wanton leakages and losses in the industry’s revenue drive, including licencing local manufacturers to encourage local production and create wealth within, have failed to improve the situation, with about 50 percent of the population still unmetered 10 years after the sector was privatised to achieve the desired efficiency.
The World Bank is financing the procurement of the meters with a loan of US$155 million and the bid was slated for closure Tuesday, 11 July, 2023.
The bid has five lots and interested companies are raising bid security of US$340,000 for lot 1, US$396,000 for lot 2, US$407,000 for lot 3, US$450,000 for lot 4 and US$385,000 for lot 5.
According to the manufacturers, the current structure of the bid will make it difficult for majority of the local companies to participate in the process.
In their view, the structure of the bid will favour only foreign companies who have the capacity to borrow from their foreign banks.
Speaking to energynewsafrica.com, the Acting President of the Association of Meter Manufacturers of Nigeria, AMMN, Ademola Agoro, said there are about 40 plus local meters with the capacity to produce about 5 million meters.
He said the local manufacturers have invested a lot in building their capacity to produce meters to meet the demand, wondering why the bid was structured in such a manner that favours only foreign companies.
According to him, the local manufacturers were not saying that the bid should not be competitive but that it should be restructured to make it easier for local meter manufacturers to be able to raise the bid security.
He said instead of the current 5 lots which is why they are raising concerns, TCN PMU should expand the lots from 5 to 20 lots, adding that that would reduce the money for bid security and consequently allow more local meter manufacturers to participate.
He also suggested that the bid should be restructured in such a way that any foreign company that wins a bid partner with a local firm for the execution of the contract.
According to him, if the bid process is allowed to continue in its current state, it will mess up all the gains local meter manufacturers have made.
“If this is allowed to go it will mess up the gains. Many local meter manufacturing companies will close down and there will be loss of jobs,” he stated categorically.
He said the Association has the option of going to court to stop it but has shelved that option for now due to the fact that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been in office for just a few days, and they do not want to disturb his peace.
The Association had earlier submitted a letter to the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, requesting their intervention to suspend the bid process.
Meanwhile, Adetayo Adegbemle, the Executive Director for PowerUp Nigeria, an advocacy group in Nigeria who started raising alarm about the bid process queried whether the huge amount of money in the bid security is intended to push local meter manufacturers out of business.
“It must be stated that we have had this kind of World Bank loan with similar conditions before 2012. However, none of the imported meters procured under that scheme are presently in the system.
“Again, this is a World Bank loan, which we are definitely repaying. It is therefore imperative that we also use this to deepen our local manufacturers’ capacity,” he noted.