The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has approved a hike in the electricity rates of Band A customers from N68/KwH to N225/kwh. This was contained in a press statement by the Vice Chairman of NERC Musliu Oseni on Wednesday.
Band A customers, who typically benefit from 20 hours of electricity supply daily, represent approximately 15% of Nigerias total electricity consumer base, which stands at 12 million customers. According to Oseni, customers in Band A account for 15 per cent of the 12 million electricity consumers in the nation.
He further explained that due to the failure to meet the necessary electricity supply hours, the customers had been recategorised and the commission had moved some Band A customers to Band B.
“We currently have 800 feeders that are categorized as Band A, but upon reviewing those feedersperformance, the Commission has now reduced it to under 500. This means that 17% now qualify as Band A feeders. These feeders only service 15% of total electricity customers connected to the feeders. The commission has issued an order which is titled April supplementary order taking effect from today.
The commission now reviewed further the application by the distribution companies and have decided that only the 17% feeders and less than 15% customers will be affected by any rate increase that the commission will ever approve for the distribution company.
“The order takes effect from today and in that order the commission has approved a rate review of N225 per killowatt hour for just under 15% of the customer population in NESI. That means that less than 15% of the customers will be affected”, Oseni stated.
The vice chairman assured that the review would not impact customers in the other Bands.
Ugochi Olivia Ubah is an Educator and a Writer
