House of Reps Committee Decries Importation of Electric Meters, Other Products into Nigeria
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The House of Representatives has expressed dissatisfaction over the domination of China and other parts of the world in the importation of electric meters and other finished products into Nigeria.
The lower Chamber of the National Assembly pointed out that the items can be manufactured in the country saying such is not helping local investors, growth of the economy, job creation and foreign exchange earnings
Accordingly, the House proposed measures to halt the importation of electricity meters and other finished products that can be manufactured in the country.
It called for imposition of special tariffs and removal of waivers for imported meters and other items as some of the strategies to stop the practice and boost local production.
Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Power, Victor Nwokolo, disclosed this yesterday during the committee’s visit to the Metering Solutions Manufacturing Services Limited (MSMSL), Onna, in Akwa Ibom State.
Nwokolo decried the importation of meters from China and other parts of the world as it was not helping local investors, growth of the economy, job creation and foreign exchange earnings.
He stressed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has achieved giant strides in the power sector, adding that the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI) was doing well in its assignment.
He said: “The new agenda of the President Bola Tinubu administration is to encourage local investors. To achieve this, we must conserve our foreign exchange, increase the value of the Naira by patronizing local manufacturers.
“The Nigerian Local Content Law must be considered. It is not going to be business as usual by allowing the Chinese bring in finished products. The negative effect of bringing in meters and other finished products is that how do our teeming youths get employment?
“When those imported meters get bad who repairs them for you? Let’s patronize our local manufacturers. When they get bad, we can return them to the Discos. All they need to do is put them through their computers, get them repaired and returned to you.
“There is no point giving waivers to the Chinese to import metres or whoever brings the products. There are usually tariffs and penalties issued to people who import cars into the country”.
Earlier, the Managing Director of Metering Solutions Manufacturing Services Limited, Tolulope Ogunkolade, had lamented the non-patronage of locally manufactured metres.
“Chinese companies were allocated 1.3 million meters to import into Nigeria while local manufacturing companies were sidelined,” he stated.
