Unsympathetically, the scorching sun barked without any sign of respite as this reporter hurriedly made his way to the Capital Building headquarters of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) at MKO Abiola way in Ibadan on October 12, 2017. With just a few customers waiting to be attended to by the two good-looking female customer care agents, it didn’t take long before he was jolted out of the comforting waves the air conditioner was puffing into his face as he was beckoned to take a seat to be heard.

“Excuse me ma, I’m tired of the estimated billing I’m made to cough up every month. It is too much. I need a prepaid meter and I have come to apply for one,” he said.


“We are very sorry for that sir. But at the moment, we have stopped issuing meters to customers. We have a backlog of applicants who have not yet been provided with the product. Until that is done, we cannot say when we will start supplying out meters,” the rotund lady with a dazzling hair extension audibly whispered.

However, findings revealed that, IBEDC, the largest electricity distribution company in Nigeria with its franchise area made up of Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and parts of Niger, Ekiti and Kogi states, stopped supplying prepaid meters in mid-2017 after the credited advance payment for metering initiative (CAPMI) intervention programme where customers were made to self-finance meter acquisition was stopped by Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing.

WELCOME TO THE BLACK MARKET WHERE PREPAID METER IS GOLD
https://www.leadingreporters.com/news/how-electricity-distribution-officials-extort-customers-in-need-of-prepaid-meter/