Effect of prepaid meters on the household expenditure on electricity consumption in Ondo state

Abstract

Unfair high electricity billing is a challenge to consumers in Nigerian electricity market and it exerts undue pressure on households who are Charged for electricity service that are not supplied by service providers through estimated billing. Customers loss income as a result of this problem. Whether the introduction of prepaid meter will bring succor to consumers is an empirical issue. The hypothesis that adoption of prepaid meter reduces household expenditure on electricity consumption was tested in this study. A total of 577 (362 males and 215 females) participants were drawn from 4 local governments area of Ondo State using multistage sampling techniques. The participants had a mean age of 46.93 years and standard deviation of 21.04 years. The study was analyzed using frequency count, means and percentages. Results showed that 70.72% of the participants witnessed a reduction in their electricity expenditures as a result of adoption of prepaid meter plan which was attributed to elimination of estimated bills and users embracing electricity conservative strategies. More so, about 82% of the participants expressed their preference for prepayment electricity plan over old metering system. The implications of the finding is that the distribution companies should make more prepaid meters available as there is willingness on the part of electricity subscribers to buy into the metering plan.