The N40 billion contract award for mass metering of Nigerian households has hit a rough patch.
The Minister of Power, Sunday, Adelabu, had been faulted for awarding the huge contract to a “greenhorn” foreign firm, De Haryor Global, ignoring local meter manufacturing companies.
Adelabu had flagged off mass metering projects, which is intended end estimated billing, in Army formations across the country.
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However, stakeholders in the power sector have frowned at the government’s choice if a foreign company at the expense of local ones, adding that the company was not known to have handled such a huge project in the past.
Faulting the government’s decision, Atinuke Owolabi, the Convener of the Coalition of Professional Women in Politics, said the move would exacerbate Nigeria’s foreign exchange crisis and impede progress.
“We cannot afford to hinder the progress of our nation by neglecting our local businesses as represented by the call for inclusive growth and upscaling of the local content in the entire gamut of metering deployment to strategic military formations/barracks nationwide,” she said.
“There is a vast pool of engineering graduates waiting to be employed, and it is disheartening to see them overlooked due to lack of support from the Federal Ministry of Power.
“De Haryor Global Services is just a business name or one of the newly incorporated entities registered specifically as an SPV for mass-metering military formations/barracks nationwide. It has no factory/meter assembling plant in Nigeria.
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“By implication, De Haryor Global Services will import N40 billion worth of meters from Asian countries and export jobs meant for Nigerians to other countries, further increasing the demand for forex.
“It’s high time we prioritised the Nation’s collective and overall primary interests over primordial interests.”
In the same vein, Adetayo Adegbemle, Executive Director and Convener, PowerUp Nigeria, posited that the government was wrong in awarding such a contract to an unknown company, and demanded the immediate reversal of the contract for the good of Nigerians.
“Before this announcement, the company, De Haryor Global Services Limited, is not known to have handled any installation of this magnitude,” Adegbemle said.
“De Haryor Global Services Limited is not a registered Meter Manufacturing/Assemblers Company, nor is it on the list of Manufacturers/Assemblers at the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trades.
“The Company, De Haryor Global Services Limited, is not on the first schedule of NERC Approved MAPs.
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“There’s no evidence of public tender/bid for this N40bn worth of contract, neither is there any evidence of meeting the Procurement Act procedure.”
Nevertheless, the minister defended the government action, saying due process was followed and that project dates back to the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
“The previous administration awarded the contract, but it was not funded then. There were three bidders for it, and the best bid was from De Haryor Global,” an aide to the minister explained.
“Also, De Haryor was not an SPV; it is a company that has existed since 2009. So, due process was followed for this project. Also, the project value is N12.7 billion.
“Yes. We have about 40 billion for mass metering, but not all are going for the Army formations metering.”