The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly Justin Okonobo has suggested the provision of meters for all electricity consumers in Edo State as a means of solving the problem of power distribution.

Justin Okonobo gave the suggestion at a stakeholders meeting in Benin City, the Edo State capital called at the instance of the Edo State House Committee on Power and Energy to address the problems of power distribution in the state.

“If you can at least let every house have a meter, your problems will be more than three quarters solved…

“The anger of people these days is not just that there is no energy but that we get the wrong cost for what we get because we don’t have meters.”

The Executive Director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Abu Ejoor said the company will continue with its regimental load shedding policy while aggressively pursuing metering.

“We have well over a million customers to serve. The metering gap today is well over 750,000 and we cannot cover the metering gap within a very short time but as a company we are vigorously pursuing metering.

“We are trying to do what I will call regimental load shedding, with three hours in and three hours out, we have started that in Benin, we might not cover everywhere but we hope that with time, with proper load management we can be able to extend it to other places. But I must also state here, it’s very important that when you consume power you pay for it, the power that goes to an area also depends on the payment culture of those areas.”

Inadequate power supply has been an endemic problem in Edo State, prompting civil society groups to stage regular protests.

Mr Okonoboh, however noted that he would do his best to ensure that the House comes to an agreement and pass the decision into a bill.