In Nigeria, when it comes to electricity, we don’t rely on just one option — we actually have different systems that people use depending on what they can afford and what works best for them. The three common ones are prepaid meters, solar, and the regular direct power supply (postpaid). In my own house, we use the prepaid meter, and to be honest, I feel it’s one of the best options for most people right now.
The prepaid meter works in a very straightforward way — you basically pay for electricity before you use it, just like when you are buying airtime. In our own house, what we do is to go to the NEPA office to buy what we call the electricity tokens, and then we load the token into the meter. The more units you buy, the longer you can use electricity and immediately you load the token the meter shows green to indicate that it is successful loaded . Once your units are running low, the meter usually gives a warning — sometimes the light turns red, or you start hearing some funny sounds from the meter itself. That’s how you know it’s time to top it up. If you ignore the warnings and the units finish, that’s the end — no light for you until you recharge.
We actually used the direct power supply in the past, and i can confidently say that the prepaid meter is way better. With the direct power supply, you’re basically using electricity on credit, and at the end of the month, NEPA officials will show up to collect payment. If you delay or refuse to pay on time, they’ll start disturbing you like crazy. I remember how they used to knock on our gate non-stop, calling on us like they were calling out debtors. Sometimes, they wouldn’t even bother talking much — they’d just place their ladder, climb the electricity pole and just cut off the power and leave you in darkness. The worse thing is , they might not bring the light for more than five times in a month and still bring you ridiculous bills at the end of the month. The prepaid meter, on the other hand, gives you peace of mind. No one is going to stress you. Once your credit finishes, you’re on your own, simple.
But when you compare prepaid meters to solar panels, it’s really like comparing two different worlds. Solar panels are amazing — no noise, no monthly bills, and you’re not at the mercy of PHCN’s nonsense — but let’s be real, the cost of setting up a proper solar system in Nigeria right now is not for regular people. It’s serious money. To fully power your house with solar, you need good panels, strong batteries, a solid inverter, and proper installation. All of that adds up fast.
But honestly, if money wasn’t an issue, I’d 100% choose to have both — solar and prepaid. That way, when there’s no light, I’d just switch to solar, and when PHCN blesses us with power, I’d switch back to prepaid and even use the light to charge the solar batteries by that way i could be guaranteed constant electricity regardless of whatever happens.
I once spent the holidays at my brother's place and that was what he did at one point. He had a solar setup, and during the day when the sun was out, his solar panels would charge the battery. Then whenever we had light, he’d switch to PHCN to run the house and top up the battery at the same time. On days when both PHCN and the sun failed (which happens a lot in Nigeria), he’d turn on his generator to charge the battery. So no matter what, he always had one backup or the other. But for average people like us, prepaid meters still make the most sense. At least with prepaid, you only pay for what you actually use — not like postpaid where they just slap you with some ridiculous bill that has nothing to do with your actual consumption.
Since I got back home from school three weeks ago, I’ve been paying attention to our power situation, and I have to say it’s surprisingly good here. We actually have power for at least 14 hours every day, and sometimes even more. Just yesterday, we had over 16 hours of uninterrupted power, which is something a lot of Nigerians can only dream of. But because we get so much power, our prepaid units tend to finish faster. In fact, we just bought some new tokens when I got back, and the meter is already warning us that we’re running low again. That’s the reality of living in a place with better power supply — you end up spending more on electricity tokens.
At the end of the day, every system has its pros and cons, but for now, prepaid meters give us the best balance between affordability and peace of mind.
Thanks for reading.
Posted Using INLEO
This is so True 😂, if we are not using power banks, we are using Generators, if not Gen Maybe solar,
It's God that will save us