The Federal Government says it has procured 50,000 prepaid electricity meters to be installed in military barracks and establishments across the country.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this at the sectoral briefing by ministers in Abuja on Friday.

Adelabu had earlier announced that the Nigerian Army, worried by its huge electricity debt, wrote a letter to the Presidency, requesting intervention to pay off the outstanding debt and the metering of their barracks.

President Bola Tinubu, he said, had directed the ministry to look into the Army’s request and utilise an N32bn metering fund reportedly paid into the account of a private firm, Ziklagsis, in 2003 for the supply of three million prepaid meters.

Giving an update at the briefing, Adelabu stated that the meters have been purchased and would be deployed to military bases to reduce the debts being owed to power distribution companies by ministries, departments, and agencies of the government.

“Almost 50,000 meters have been procured and deployed to all military formations nationwide to reduce MDA debts and improve sector liquidity,” Adelabu noted.

He added that the Federal Government just completed a bidding process for the procurement of 1.5 million meters as funded by the World Bank, saying the contract would be awarded in a few months.

He mentioned, “We just completed a bidding process for 1.5 million meters financed by the World Bank to reduce sector liquidity and reduce estimated billing. In the next couple of months, this contract will be awarded to the meter providers.”

Adelabu noted that President Tinubu was committed to closing the 7 million metering gap to stop estimated billing and reduce overbilling.

The process, which he disclosed had started already, would see to the metering of 10 million customers in five years.

We have a presidential initiative scheduled to provide 2 million meters per annum for the next five years to bridge the over 7 million metering gaps.