JUST-IN: Federal Gov’t Plans Electricity Tariff Review For Band B, C Customers

Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has announced plans by the Federal Government to regularise electricity tariffs to address disparities in the current billing system and encourage investment in the power sector.

Adelabu, who disclosed this at the ongoing public presentation of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Nigeria Integrated Resource Plan on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the government is considering this option over the slow pace of migration to Band A customers, which he attributed to the reluctance of Distribution Companies to make the necessary investments.

Presently, customers in band B, who enjoy 18 to 17 hours of electricity supply pay N63 per kilowatt-hour, while those in Band A, with only two hours more of supply are charged N209 per kilowatt-hour.

Adelabu described this as “unfair” and stressed the need for a regularisation of the tariffs to create a more balanced and equitable pricing system.

“We will look at the tariff again. I am not saying that we’re going to increase the tariff before I am misquoted.

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“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,” he said.

The minister added that 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,” he said.

The government is planning on restructuring the tariff bands to reduce the current wide gap between the bands with a new system, proposed to encompass Bands A, B, and C.

“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.”