Tariff review won’t lead to increased electricity cost – Minister

Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, says there are no plans for any major hike in electricity tariff in the country.

He stated this in a statement issued in Abuja, stressing that instead of a significant hike in electricity tariff, Nigerians should expect an increase in efficiency of the power sector to reduce tariffs.

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission had on Monday announced the plan for another tariff review for the 11 distribution companies (Discos) in the country, starting from July.

But the minister in the statement said the review was a routine procedure and not a major increase.

Mamman said Nigerians should rather expect an increase in efficiency from the sector to reduce tariffs while managing headwinds from foreign exchange and inflation.

“The tariff for customers on service bands D & E (customers being served less than an average of 12 hours of supply per day over a period of one month) remains subsidized in line with the policy direction of the Federal Government,” he stated.

“The Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) per NERC regulation obtains input from operators in the market every six months to perform minor reviews and a major review is required every five years.

“Thus, as in January, a minor review will occur in June. Given the timing for the extraordinary review has also elapsed, a review will occur for consideration in January 2021.”

The minister also said with the National Mass Metering Programme, the FG would soon eliminate the metering gap.