China's Hexing eyes Nigeria to drive smart metering business

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-7-24 19:38:01

China's electricity meter giant Hexing Electrical Co., Ltd has entered into partnership with a Nigerian metering and technological solutions company, MEMMCOL, in a move to localized its presence in the country.

Hexing is targeting the Nigerian market alongside other emerging economies to gain huge market share in the smart prepaid metering segment, Zhou Liangzhang, chairman of the Chinese technology company told Xinhua in a recent interview at the newly- established electricity meter manufacturing plant in southwest Ogun State.

"Hopefully, in the next three month, we shall commence operation because we have strong infrastructure in place to support our customers' needs in Nigeria," he said.

"We are starting with an investment of 1 million US dollars with MEMMCOL and we hope to increase it," he added, noting that some machinery is on shipment to Nigeria.

A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes.

"Nigeria is faced with huge electricity challenges and Hexing is here to partner with our local friends to manufacture and promote electricity products," Zhou added.

The managing director of Momas Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company Limited (MEMMCOL), Lucas Scaraffiotti, said the company, which has been active in energy metering for more than 15 years in Nigeria, is excited with the partnership with Hexing.

"I feel its important that Nigeria should stop importing electricity meters so that we can migrate from importing meters to manufacturing of meters of various types in Nigeria," he added.

"This will give customers better service across the nation and address customers' need," he said.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, MEMMCOL pioneered the system integration on local area network in prepayment metering for major cities in Nigeria.

In 2011, the company's ECMI smart metering application was STS certified in South Africa and was the first fully African indigenous smart metering manufacturer with STS certified management system in Nigeria West Africa.

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