FG says no electricity tariff increase for poor, vulnerable Nigerians, gives conditions for increase

The Federal Government has disclosed that poor and vulnerable Nigerians will not be experiencing any electricity tariff increase. The clarification is in response to a media report of an increase in electricity tariffs in Nigeria. It also asked the general public and stakeholders in the power sector to disregard any report of an arbitrary tariff increase.

The disclosure was made by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) through a press statement that was issued on Wednesday, August 27, 2020, and signed by its Executive Chairman, James Momoh.

NERC revealed that electricity tariff reviews, going forward, will only follow service-based principles. Under these principles, Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) will only be able to review tariff rates for customers when they consult with them, and commit to increasing the number of hours of supply per day and quality of service.

NERC stated that in line with these expectations, DISCOs have been directed to engage with their customers on a Serviced Based Tariff structure, where DISCOs can only review tariffs for customers under the following conditions:

• Customers are consulted and communicated a guaranteed level of electricity service by the DISCOs based on hours of supply.
• Customers are metered.
• No estimated billing through the strict enforcement of the capping regulation. This means that unmetered customers will not experience any cost increase beyond what is chargeable to metered customers in the same area.

Going further, NERC disclosed that even under the above stated conditions, there will be no tariff change for the most vulnerable, as tariffs for those consuming 50KW or less remain frozen. Also, customers receiving less than 12 hours of power supply are expected not to experience any change in tariffs.

The President has also approved a waiver of the import levy on meters so that those who do not have meters can be supplied as early as possible at reasonable costs.

Nairametrics, while quoting a media report, stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved electricity tariff increase with effect from September 1, 2020. The report suggested that the President may have finally approved the official implementation of cost-reflective tariffs for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, with the tariff now set to go live on September 1, 2020.