Buhari govt approves increase in electricity tariff from January

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has approved an increase in electricity tariff by the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the directive of the new tariff regime for different DisCos and category of customers was published on NERC website on Saturday.

The directive was signed by the NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh and Secretary, Mr. Dafe Akpedeye.

NERC said that the order superseded the earlier one issued on the subject matter, and “the new tariff regime takes effect from Jan. 1, 2020.”

The commission noted that the order had taken into consideration, other actual changes in relevant macroeconomic variables and available generation capacity as at October 31 2019.

It said the order was in line with updating the Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO, operating-2015 Tariff Order for 2019 in line with the provisions of the amended MYTO Methodology.

“Projections are made for the variables for the year 2020 and beyond based on the best available information.

“The commission, however, based adjustments in the tariff, on the relevant data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) such as average monthly inflation rate of 11.3 per cent, exchange rate of N309.97”.

According to the publication, for the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) residential customers R3 that were paying N27.20 per unit are to now pay N47.09.

NERC said that the customers are now to pay N19.89 more per unit representing 236.75 per cent increase.

“The commercial customers C3 that paid N27.20 per unit in 2015, when the tariff was last adjusted and implemented are now to pay N47.09 in 2020.

The commission said that for the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company’s customers, the R3 category that was formerly paying N26.50 per unit is to now pay N36.92 per unit.

The customers are, therefore, to pay additional N10.02 per unit, representing 368.49 per cent increase.

“The commercial customers C3 that paid N24.63 per unit in 2015 are to now pay N38.14 per unit.

“The customers are to pay additional N13.51 per unit representing 282.30 per cent.

“The industrial customers of the IKEDC D3 that paid N25.82 per unit are now to pay N35.85 per unit.

“The difference is now the additional 10.03 per unit, representing an increase of 357.42 per cent”.

NERC said that Enugu Electricity Distribution Company residential (R3) customers that were paying N27.11 per unit in 2015 are to now pay N48.12 per unit.

The customers are to pay additional N21.01 per unit, which translates to 229.03 per cent.

The commission directed that “all DisCos are obligated to settle their market invoices in full as adjusted and netted off by the applicable tariff shortfall.”