Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12 electricity distribution company (DisCo), has set up a high-powered team comprising 10 persons to ensure the speedy implementation of its mass meter rollout starting next week.
Headed by Alfred Ategie, head of the Metering Team at Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest DisCo, the Mass Metering Rollout Project will provide 20,000 prepaid meters in April and another 20,000 meters in May in the Aba Ring-fenced Area, comprising nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State.
Members of the project team include Anthony Ike Alozie, the chief financial officer at Geometric Power which is Aba Power’s parent company, Ini Uyo, who heads the Customer Care team, Sam Inengite, the deputy head of Geometric Power Finance, Edise Ekong, the Senior Manager in-charge of Branding and Communication at Aba Power, and Simeon Akpata who leads the utility’s maintenance team.
“Alfred is the best man to lead this project which has to work round the clock to make the prepaid meters available”, declared Ugo Opiegbe, a lawyer and the Aba Power Managing Director, in a statement this afternoon.
“He is not just an electrical and electronics engineer but one who has a rich experience in the meter installation business.
“Ever cheerful, very hardworking, and a team player, Alfred joined Aba Power from Eko DisCo in Lagos where he excelled in metering”.
The Aba Power MD described the project team as cross-sectional because it compromises individuals from various departments of the company who “will not only bring their various insights into the implementation of the project but also help address existing and new challenges.
“Host community issues are of great interest to us, hence the membership of Barrister Mike Nwogu, an indigene of our host community who is also our Community Relations, Regulatory, and Compliance Manager”.
Opiegbe revealed that customers in all nine LGAs Aba Power services would not start to receive meters the same day.
“We are providing meters feeder by feeder, meaning that we provide a meter to every house on a given meter and once we conclude on that feeder we move to the next”, he said.
He explained that the objective is to meter all the utility’s over 200,000 customers in the next year, adding that Kayz Consortium alone is providing 90,000 meters.
Opiegbe said that the 90,000 units “will be assembled in the Geometric Power premises in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba”.
He gave the other meter vendors working with Aba Power as Eves metering, Chint Metering, and DECSN Metering Ltd.
“As you can see”, he concluded, “we mean business”.
