Nigerians to pay more for electricity staring from April

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says consumers will start paying higher tariffs from April, 2020.

TheGiant that NERC made this known after reviewing electricity tariffs for December 2019.

In the December 2019 Minor Review of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2015 and the Minimum Remittance Order (MRO) for 2020, NERC said: “The Federal Government’s updated Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSPRP) does not envisage an immediate increase in end-users tariffs until 1st April 2020 and a transition to full cost reflectivity by end of 2021.”

NERC said, “In the interim, FG is committed to fund the revenue gap between the cost reflective tariff and the actual tariff NERC allows customers to pay.”

The Order is dated December 31, 2019, and signed by the NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh and the Commissioner, Legal, Licencing and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye.

NERC said the review considered changes in macroeconomic indices like inflation at 11.3%, exchange rate at N309.9 to a dollar, and gas price at $3.30 per standard cubic feet (scuf).

The Commission said that all Discos are obligated to settle their market invoices in full as adjusted and netted off by applicable tariff shortfall.

“All FGN intervention from the financing plan of the PSRP for funding tariff shortfall shall be applied through NBET and the market operator to ensure 100 per cent settlement of invoices issued by market participants,” it said.

“Effectively, this order places a freeze on the tariffs of TCN and administrative charges until April 2020 at the rates applied in generating MO invoices for the period of January to October 2019.”