For building up the largest indigenous manufacturer, distributor, installer of smart metering and energy solutions services provider in sub-Saharan Africa as well as playing a leading role in government’s mass metering effort, Ms Chantelle Abdul is the LEADERSHIP Business Person of the Year 2022
Ms Chantelle Abdul is the managing director and chief executive of Mojec International Holdings, a conglomerate with subsidiaries in the power, energy, real estate and retail sectors. Its operations span Africa and Asia. Its outstanding subsidiaries include Mojec Power, Mojec Meter Company, Mojec Real Estate and Mojec Agriculture.
However, it is in the power sector that Ms Abdul’s name rings a bell. Apparently in a bid to proffer solutions to the harrowing experience Nigerians pass through in the hands of power distribution companies (DisCos) by payment of outrageous estimated bills, this young and talented woman founded Mojec International Limited, a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art smart meter assembling facility with an installed production capacity of over a million meters annually. The facility churns out indigenous smart pre-paid meters, the first of its kind in the country.
An international holding company registered in 1985, Mojec International has grown to become Africa’s leading electricity engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to the electricity distribution companies and other African utilities on transmission and distribution of projects. It manufactures and supplies a variety of meters such as maximum demand, whole current, pre-paid meters, Automatic Meter Reading System (AMR) and Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI).
It is not just one of the largest meter suppliers in Nigeria; it has international joint ventures and alliances with leading manufacturers in Asia and Europe.
Ms Abdul has since grown the company from meter manufacturing to power generation, transmission and distribution services.
Her vision is to float the company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to give it an international stature. With a network of engineers and installers, she has grown the market share from 20 to 80 per cent with eight of the 11 utilities in Nigeria as clients.
According to Abdul, the numerous issues plaguing the Nigerian power sector are not really difficult to identify. To mitigate these challenges, she said, Mojec had intensified efforts towards ensuring a level of stability in the power sector with a priority to see that Nigerians not only have access to electricity but only pay for what they consume.
Driven by this vision, Mojec has risen to become the largest manufacturer, distributor and installer of smart metering, power generation and energy solutions services provider in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
The company also pioneered the introduction of smart meters in the country and painstakingly delivered with its production and installation capacity which have come in handy in helping to propagate the objectives of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s (FGN) agenda in the areas of increasing Nigeria’s metering rate, increasing local meter manufacturing capacity to strengthen the local meter value chain, creating jobs in the local meter value chain, and supporting the Nigerian economy by eliminating erratic billings.
Another historical feat of the group is pioneering the Mobile MAP initiative, its meter penetration and partnership idea, with which the Mojec Meter Asset Management Company Limited (M3AC) has been pushing to get more Nigerian homes and businesses conveniently metered.
This initiative has seen Mojec partner with as many as nine out of the 11 power distribution companies (DisCos) across the country. In pursuit of this and other astute strategies, Mojec has produced and installed over one million smart meters in the Nigerian market, which is another first.
Under her guidance, Mojec is the market leader which pioneered, led and introduced vendor financing to the sector, which enabled five DisCos to roll out hundreds of thousands of meters for the first time in the history of the sector post-privatisation
Undoubtedly, no company has contributed more to closing the Nigerian metering gap than Mojec.
Its investments in technology and human capital are also historical firsts. The company pioneered the rollout of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) into the Nigerian electricity sector and has the largest number of meters connected to AMI nationwide. The AMI system is the key enabler technology made up of smart meters, communication networks, and Meter Data Management System (MDMS).
With the AMI platform, the meter communicates and updates data per hour, enabling regular feedback from each connected meter to the DisCos.
These details enable someone at the back end not just to see, but to gain access into the readings of deployed smart meters to ensure accurate billings. With this technology, Mojec has been rolling out smart meters as far back as 2011 and currently has over 8,000 meters deployed and monitored remotely.
The company’s audacious investments in research and development guarantee that these initiatives are sustained at peak quality with local adaption, which makes the smart meters extremely durable.
With the AMI system, which the company currently deploys in partnership with the Port Harcourt DisCo, Ibadan DisCo, Ikeja DisCo, EKO DisCo, Enugu DisCo, Abuja DisCo, Yola DisCo, and Jos DisCo, the system allows for automation and enables utilities to be able to remotely read, monitor as well as manage revenue collection.
The company’s desire to ensure customer satisfaction and value for money led it to develop these innovations and work closely with the DisCos. This strategy has seen Mojec deploy over 5,000 meter installers across Nigeria, underpinning its status as the largest manufacturer, distributor, installer of smart metering, power generation and energy solutions in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2020, the federal government initiated the National Mass Metering Programme in partnership with indigenous meter manufacturers, with Mojec International Ltd the most prominent amongst them.
The company’s inclusion in the project was based on its demonstrated ability to boost the capacity and production of meters locally while hiring and equipping Nigerians with the requisite skills in the sector.
Stakeholders in the Nigerian power sector aver that the company demonstrated leadership in this NMMP Phase 0 scheme by producing and installing over 350,000 meters, and also creating over 300 jobs under its manufacturing arm (MI & M3AC), with the M3AC creating the largest installation network across Nigeria, with over 5,000 installers actively engaged in its network.
The company set up a state-of-the-art electricity meter plant in the country with a production capacity of over 2,400,000 meters annually designed to serve the local African markets, Europe, Middle East and Asia, and others. The factory is fully equipped to handle customer demand.
