FG Increases Electricity Tariff By 50%

Ganiyat Ganiyu

The Federal Government has increased the electricity tariff payable by power consumers across the country by 50%.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in a circular announced that the increase which varies, based on different consumer classes, took effect from January 1, 2021.

The NERC announced the tariff hike in its December 2020 minor review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order and Minimum Remittance Order.

The tariff increase is taking effect just two months after the government through NERC implemented a hike in November 2020.

The MYTO order containing the latest tariff hike, Order NERC/225/2020, was signed by the new Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, and it supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.

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Providing reasons for the latest tariff hike, the commission said it considered the 14.9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020 and foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020.

Others were available generation capacity, the United States inflation rate of 1.22 per cent and the Capital Expenditure of the power firms before the tariff was raised.

The commission also stated that the new tariff would be effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff would be activated from June to December 2021.