The Federal Government is expected to pay about N180.8 billion as electricity subsidy for power consumers from Bands ‘B’ to ‘E’ that have had their tariffs frozen since December 2022. Besides, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has fined the 11 Distribution Companies (Discos) roughly N8.3 billion for overbilling their customers in recent times, with an instruction for them to compensate the impacted electricity consumers.
These were made known in the September 2024 Supplementary Order of the Multi-Year Tariff Order of 2024 released by the Sanusi Garba-led power sector regulator yesterday in Abuja. News reports indicate that Abuja Disco had the highest fine with N1.69 billion, followed by Eko Disco with N1.41 billion, while Ikeja Disco was instructed by NERC to pay N1.41 billion for the infraction.
The other Discos that were impacted by the order were: Jos Disco with N1.338 billion; Port Harcourt Disco was fined N1.16 billion; Benin Disco was fined N804 million; Enugu Disco will pay N310m; Ibadan Disco will shed N15 million while Kaduna Disco has N115 million to pay. Yola Disco was fined N54 million, and Kano Disco will pay N20 million for the same offence.
The order which also saw tariffs unchanged for September, was signed by NERC’s Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni and Commissioner for Legal, Licensing, and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye. According to the sector regulator, the penalty was a response to the Discos’ non-compliance with previous directives aimed at capping estimated billing for electricity consumers.
The power distributors are also expected to publish explanations on their websites within 24 hours if they fail to provide a committed level of service on Band ‘A’ feeders for two consecutive days. NERC stated that the Discos shall be held accountable for service deliveries per commitments under its Service Based Tariff (SBT) proposals that seek to align end-user tariffs in proportion to the service level enjoyed by customer clusters as measured in average hours of supply per day over one month.
