President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of the proposed cost-reflective electricity tariff for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Indu
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of the proposed cost-reflective electricity tariff for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). However, residential areas classified as “poor” will not be affected by the increase in tariff.
Also, Buhari has approved a one-year waiver of 35 per cent import tax for prepaid meters to facilitate increased provision to consumers for accurate billing. The approval was as a result of the request by Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, to fast-track the deployment of prepaid meters under the meter asset providers (MAP) scheme.
In January, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had announced that there would be an upward review of electricity tariffs across the country from April 1. However, it directed electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to suspend the proposed tariff increase in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, the national assembly had persuaded the DisCos to defer the plan till the first quarter of 2021 because of the pandemic on energy consumers.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan had maintained that consumers should be properly metered before the tariff hike is implemented.
With the approval, the new tariff regime is expected to kick off on September 1 and to be reviewed quarterly. This is said to be a requirement for the approval of a proposed $1.5 billion World Bank loan for the power sector.
According to the new tariff via a NERC order dated December 31, 2019, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) residential customers R3 that were paying N27.20 per unit will now pay N47.09 and N63.42 by next year. For the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) customers, the R3 category paying N26.50 per unit will now pay N36.49 per unit and later N58.
