Sabrud Consortium, a meter manufacturing company based in Awka has signed an agreement with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) for mass deployment of metres to electricity consumers within the university community.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Awka on Tuesday with Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu, the Acting Vice Chancellor of NAU signing for the University and Mr Chiso Nwangwu, Managing Director of Sabrud Consortium signing for his company.
Speaking at the event, Dr Steve Ufoaroh, Chairman of the University Electricity Monitoring Committee said the synergy would address the challenge of energy theft and engender responsible energy use among customers in the University.
Ufoaroh said the university has been paying huge sum as electricity bills while corporate organisations, businesses and residents consuming the energy were paying pittance.
He said that the metering should be protected, warning that bypass was N100,000 sanction.
“Before now, the billing system used to be estimated, we used to pay as much as N66 million monthly but users are paying pittance, but after the enumeration and checks out in place, it has reduced to less than N50 million per month.
“So, this agreement with Sabrud Consortium will make sure that all the units; businesses, hostels, offices and other consumers so that they can pay for what they consume without any party feeling cheated,” he said.
Also speaking, Nwangwu said mass metering was the way to go for the institution to get the full value of the money they were paying.
He commended the management of the University for finding Sabrud Consortium worthy of the programme while assuring that the company had the capacity to meet the demand of the University and the entire Southeast region.
“We want to commend Nnamdi Azikiwe University for this initiative and I want to encourage other bulk users to key into this community mass metering initiative and avoid the problems of estimated billing.
“Sabrud Consortium will also provide technical support for staff and students of NAU in the field of electronics, electrical, mechanical, polymer and other engineering fields that have to do with electricity,” he said.
On his part, Ikechebelu said power was crucial to optimal functioning of the University system and that he was happy that the challenge with high cost of electricity was being addressed.
He commended the electricity monitoring committee for delivering on its mandate and Sabrud Consortium for demonstrating sufficient capacity to run the process.
“I want to assure that the management of this institution will sustain this process,” he said.(NAN)
