We Spend Millions Of Naira To Buy Telephone From China – Fashola

Babatunde Fashola has said the Federal Government had concluded plans to involve more Nigerians in meter manufacturing.

“The core business of DISCOs is to transport energy; their business is not to supply meters.

“The government will address metering more vigorously this year with regulations which will open up business in metering to more investors.

“This will reduce the pressure on DISCOs so that they can concentrate more on their core business.

“So, we will open up the business to other people who want to play in the sector once the meter regulations are completed this year,” he said.

“We have seen Nigeria’s meter journey; the meters from 1950 to date, meters from Greece, Japan, Britain and China. This has shown that how our industry totally depends on meters from foreign countries.

“But now, we are beginning to see meters from local manufacturers like Mojec and Moman; that is a good place to be.

“At present, we have over 100 million telephone subscribers in Nigeria, but let me ask you, how many telephones are made in Nigeria?

“We spend millions of naira to buy telephone from China and still we will go back and borrow money from China.

“So, we want to change that in the meter industry; we are happy that some Nigerians are manufacturing meter in Nigeria and we promise to support them,” he said.

He added that the National Meter Test, under Nigerian Electricity Management Service Agency (NEMSA) was to test the accuracy of meters before installation.