The Association of Meter Manufacturers and Assemblers Nigeria (AMMON) has advised the Federal Government to halt attempts by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to allow foreign companies to bid for manufacturing of electricity meters in the country.
AMMON Secretary, Durosola Omogbenigun at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, also advised the Federal Government not to use World Bank 155 million dollar loan for importation of the electricity meters into the country.
The project was aimed at closing the metering gap in Nigeria.
Omogbenigun, said that the evaluation criteria opening the bid to foreign manufacturers were designed to eliminate Nigerian meter manufacturers.
He said: “Consequently, indigenous manufacturers have insisted that implementing the policy would mean taking away Nigerian jobs and depriving the economy of the benefits the loan was meant to bring”.
Omogbenigun said that the fund should rather be made available to local meter manufacturers who had the capacity to produce the meters.
He said that granting foreign companies the licence to bring in fully built meters at a zero import duty would cripple the sector.
“We found out that the evaluation criteria by way of turnover, cash flow, experience for the bid seems to be designed to eliminate the local manufacturers.
“Our interest today is to quickly state that this world bank project is inimical to the growth of the manufacturing sector, progress that have been made in the local content policy as stated in executive order 003 of 2017.
“It also negates the gains that have been achieved in backward integration, technology transfer and employment within the industry,” Omogbenigun said.
The treasurer of the association, Mr Ifeanyi Okeke said that local metre manufacturers had the capacity to meet the 1.2 million metering target of the World Bank loan.
Okeke, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Holley Metering Limited, urged the federal government to ensure that the fund from the federal government was used to boost Nigeria economy and job creation in the country.
“We are not against World Bank-funded projects but the fund should be channelled in such a way that will catalyse employment for Nigerians,” he said.
TCN, had in a tender publication unveiled requirements for bidders to apply for the World Banks’ 155 project under the Nigeria Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP).
TCN had in a tender publication unveiled stringent requirements before a vendor can access the loan, which effectively ruled out local manufacturers.
He said the TCN’s plan was aimed at bridging the over eight million metering gap in the Nigerian Electricity Market.
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