By Henry Obetta

An indigenous meter manufacturing firm, Metering Solutions says it Onna factory in Akwa Ibom is currently producing about 3.6 million smart meters annually.

The company says it aimed to bridge the nation’s metering gap with its meters that produced with the best technology in the world.

The General Manager, Metering Solutions Manufacturing Services Limited, Mr Tolu Ogunkolade stated this during an inspection tour of the Onna factory on Thursday.

Ogunkolade said: “The requirement for capacity demonstration in metering is not referenced around assembly operations, it’s not referenced around what most industry competitors bandy around.

“What constitutes your capacity proof is actually referenced around the number of test benches that you have.

“The above is also a function of how many meters you can take through the entire test operations in the course of either an eight-hour period or maybe even a three-hour period or whatever it is.

“So it is on the basis of that, I make bold to say that over three million meters is what is possible to be produced from the 34 set of meter benches that are for test operation cycle that we have in this factory.

“What defines and determines the quality in metering is your test operations, because the national metering code specifies the various categories of test operations that you must take an innovative metering product through.

“Another thing is the reference quality index for your product as a manufacturer.

“Metering quality is also determined based on the quality

of the test bench and the consistency of calibration and certification that you do with the test bench.

“This will ensure that what products you have, the products that you are producing are in conformance with the technical specifications.”

On government support, he said: “Our government cannot do anything to enhance our productivity.

“The government can only support to ensure that the capacity and capability proof is translated into productivity by an improved level of patronage.”

On his part, Group ED Technical and Operations, Income Electrix, Dr Emmanuel Audu, stated that Metering Solutions has successfully bridged the gap between the importation and local production of meters in Nigeria.

Audu said: “The inspection tour is to ascertain the production capacity and standard of products as part of efforts to push patronage.”

Similarly, the Commissioner for Finance and Management Services at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Mr Nathan Shatti, described the products of Metering Solutions as comparable to those of foreign companies.

Shatti said: “I am impressed, and they have a lot of capacity here. They can do up to 10,000 meters in a day, which is very impressive. I am sure they can also up that, especially with additional shifts and the rest of them.

“So, quite a good job here. An investment made by Nigerian investors. So we need to commend them. We need to encourage them.

“It is very important for the commission to ensure that companies like Metering Solutions are allowed to participate in that process of metering Nigerians under the presidential metering initiative,” he stated.