Nigerian government slashes electricity tariff by 50%

The Nigerian Federal Government on Tuesday announced a reduction in electricity tariffs by 50 per cent.

It explained that the reduction which came barely two months after it cut the pump price of petrol by N10,   followed a series of complaints by electricity consumers.

The government through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission added that it took the decision after it removed the collection loss component of the Multi Year Tariff Order 2.1 of the affected Discos.

NERC Chairman,   Sam Amadi, said the addition of the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses to the reviewed tariff that was implemented on January 1, 2015 was responsible for the skyrocketed tariff.

The addition, according to him, was done after the regulatory commission conducted a fact-finding tour of the Discos and noted that it was aimed at ensuring a cost reflective tariff by passing the bulk to ‘‘paying’’ consumers for losses incurred from ‘‘non-paying’’ consumers.

He said although the increment in residential tariff was pending till June 2015, the total removal of the collection loss applied to all consumer categories, including industrial and commercial consumers.

With the new directive, it therefore means that the energy charge, which forms the larger part of the tariff paid by customers when computed by Discos, will be reduced by half.

...Punch