Federal Government has initiated plans to regularise electricity tariffs to address existing disparities within the current billing system and to promote investment in the power sector.
Gatekeepers News reports that during a public presentation of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and the Nigeria Integrated Resource Plan on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, highlighted the need for this change.
He noted concerns regarding the slow transition of customers to Band A status, attributing this delay to the hesitation of Distribution Companies to undertake necessary investments.
Currently, customers in Band B, who receive between 17 and 18 hours of electricity supply per day, are charged N63 per kilowatt-hour. In comparison, those in Band A, who benefit from just two additional hours of supply, face a higher tariff of N209 per kilowatt-hour.
Adelabu described this pricing structure as “unfair” and emphasised the importance of regularizing the tariffs to establish a more balanced and equitable pricing system for consumers.
The minister said, “We will look at the tariff again. I am not saying that we’re going to increase the tariff before I am misquoted.
“We are going to look at it and see how we can improve upon our modest achievement of last year, not only to ensure that we grow the sector that we need but also to ensure that we can invest more in revamping all these dilapidated infrastructures.”
“The migration to Band A should have been faster, but we found out that the DisCos refuse to invest. They have refused to invest in this sector.
“A lot of investment is required for us to achieve an accelerated migration of lower-band customers into Band A. It is taking a lot of time.”
In response to this, the government is considering restructuring the tariff bands, reducing the current wide gap between them.
A new system, proposed to encompass Bands A, B, and C, would address these inequalities.
“The gap between the Band A tariffs and Bands B, C, D, and E is just too wide,” he said. “We believe it’s not fair. It is not just, and we must be able to carry out some level of regularisation.”
According to him, the government is committed to reviewing the existing tariff structure, although he was quick to clarify that the review does not imply an imminent increase in rates.
