The Nigerian real estate sector is at has never been this sought out for with new commercial and residential developments, and with that has come an ever-growing need for a more efficient way to monitor and bill tenants for water and electricity use. The use of sub-meters, such as those provided by Direct Credit e-Solutions Nigeria (DCESN), has enabled landlords and property owners to more reliably and accurately manage their utilities and reduce the risks involved in providing their tenants with water and electricity utilities.

What are prepaid sub-meters?
A sub-meter (subsidiary meter) is a meter that enables the landlord, facility manager manage and monitor the electricity or water usage. The sub-meter is installed at the last mile from the main MD meter and does not replace the main meter such as those supplied by DISCOs such as AEDC, EEDC, EKEDC, IKEDC etc, a lot of Cees. It is fitted on the supply to the area that will be consuming its own electricity or water. Each area to be measured with have it’s own sub-meter. Sub-meters are suitable for a variety of setups, for example, backyard rentals, the renting out of boys quarters flats, student accommodation, vacation rentals, business parks, apartment blocks, complexes, shops in hotels and more. Sub-meters can measure electricity usage as well as water usage.

How does it work? The main MD meter from the DISCO meter will record the total utility consumption for the entire property, while the sub-meter only records a portion of the consumption in the sub-metered area. This means that the sub-meter’s consumption is a part of that recorded by the council meter.

Why are prepaid sub-meters needed?
Without a sub-meter, you as the landlord, property manager would have one of two options:

Option 1: You will need to divide the total consumption for water and electricity as measured on the council meter by the number of tenants or square meterage per tenants. This is quite common in commercial setups but less common in residential setups (except for water). The downside is that it is not a fair or exact representation of each tenant’s usage, encourages waste and you may struggle to get payment from tenants.

Option 2: You can install a post paid meter for postpaid billing purposes, however, this can invite a lot of tenant feedback or disputes of usage. This also comes with the usual invoicing admin and risk of non-payment but is at least as fair as you can get without a sub-meter.

Your other option is to use a sub-meter:

Option 3: Install a water and/or electricity sub-meter and tenants can pay upfront for their utilities.

What are the benefits of prepaid sub-metering to tenants?
Prepaid sub-metering solves a whole host of problems; it allows for reliable and accurate utility management for commercial and residential areas that minimises admin, improves customer engagement and saves you money. Tenants pay upfront for their utilities, which means that you will never struggle to collect money from tenants again. The transparent monitoring means that tenants can see how much water and electricity they are using, which helps them use less and so save money and has the bonus effects of reducing waste (and so greener) and dealing with far fewer disputes over usage and billing.


We have the proven expertise to conduct in-depth feasibility studies for the apartment or site to provide solution on how to share electricity between Landlords and/or tenants to determine their individual consumptions in Multi-Tenanted buildings, shopping malls and complexes, offices etc. the Landlord will also be able to collect all tenants energy bills easily and pay off the bills on the master meter (MD) which help to avoid arrears and estimated bills.


Please note: DCESN Meters are prepaid sub-meters and must always be installed after DISCO meters unless where you have approved independent power plant.

Vending the submeters is also very seamless as you can have both online and offline payments using www.vendr.ng

You can head over there to see how it can aid collection of not only utility bills but other collections such as service charge, or other types of collection which you want to collect from residents.

You can also find dual tariff also called dual source electric prepayment meter . This is a single special meter that allows payments for two sources of energy on one meter eg Generators and Ikeja DISCO. Its suitable for Shopping malls, Gated Estates, Hotels and other personal use.