$155m World Bank loan: Senate seeks protection for domestic manufacturers of metres

The Senate on Thursday sought protection for local manufacturers of metres following the approval of a $155 million World Bank loan for the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) of the Federal Government.

The resolution was a sequel to the motion sponsored by Senator Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central) during plenary.

Presenting the motion, Umeh noted that it is the duty of industry procurement regulators in every developing economy to protect local manufacturers “and would only try to augment importation of goods and services where there is a clear-cut gap between local production and consumption.”

He said: “Members of Association of Metre Manufacturers of Nigeria, AMMON, are capable of producing world-standard smart metres; hence, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, under Phase 1 of the Mass Metering Programme of the federal government, issued the association, after a competitive bidding process, a ‘Letter of No Objection’ to award four million metres in 2022.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria, also in 2020, undertook to fund the National Mass Metering Programme, NMMP, Phase 1, but after eight months of awards to local manufacturers, withdrew funding, which affected the workability of the programme.”

Umeh, who revealed that the World Bank has approved a $155 million loan for the National Mass Metering Programme, is, however, worried that “the ongoing World Bank-funded NMMP Phase 2 seeks to promote foreign companies’ participation against competent and pre-qualified local metre manufacturers [which] will ultimately result in the loss of jobs and revenue.”

The lawmaker further informed that TCN, on behalf of the World Bank, closed the bidding advertisement on July 11, 2023, and further extended it to July 25, 2023, for the supply and installation of 1.2 million smart metres to the 11 distribution companies in the country.

The bidding criteria, according to him, could only be satisfied by foreign companies and had totally marginalised and eliminated the participation of the 35 local metre manufacturers.

If allowed to continue, he stressed, it would be disastrous to AMMON members, who have invested billions of naira in the sector and currently employ 10,000 direct workers and over 30,000 indirect workers.

In its resolutions, the Senate urged the Federal Government to immediately suspend the TCN Tender for the World Bank-funded NMMP Phase 2. The aim is to undertake a comprehensive review of the procurement criteria to prioritise local manufacturing and assembling in line with the local content and backward integration policies that catalyse focal capacity building, employment generation, and economic growth for Nigeria.

The Senate also asked TCN and other stakeholders to negotiate and engage the African Export-Import Bank, AFREXIM, and the African Development Bank, AFDB, for alternative loans if the World Bank loan conditions do not favour local economic growth at this critical time of massive unemployment and devaluation of the naira.

The Senate further called for the assessment of the CBN intervention funds for members of AMMON with a view to further developing the sector and boosting the nation’s economy.

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