Court Dismisses MAN’s Case Against Electricity Tariff Increase

A Federal High Court in Lagos has struck out a case by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria challenging the implementation of the Band A electricity tariff review by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company and 11 others.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)  made this known in a public notice in its X handle on Thursday that the judgment was delivered on Monday.

In the judgment, the court was said to have considered all the parties’ arguments and ruled that MAN’s suit was an abuse of the court process, being premature and without due regard to the provisions of Section 51 of the Electricity Act 2023.

“The court also held that MAN’s case disclosed no reasonable cause of action as it had not exhausted the dispute resolution mechanism.

“It thus held that the suit was not instituted with due process of law, and consequently struck out the case,” the NERC said.

Recall that MAN had challenged the minor review of the electricity tariff by the NERC and filed a lawsuit at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court.

The manufacturers sought four reliefs: that due process stated in the Act for the review was not fulfilled before AEDC and the others applied to NERC for the tariff review on July 31, 2023.

It stated that regulatory requirements for tariff reviews were not followed before NERC issued the Supplementary Order of 3 April 2024 and the subsequently reviewed rate of May 6, 2024.

MAN also held that placing the burden of the tariff increase on only Band “A” feeders and leaving out other bands amounted to discrimination against such consumers.

It then noted that the defendants must comply with administrative procedures for tariff review before rightfully implementing the April and May Supplementary Orders.

NERC had objected to the suit stating that MAN’s case constitutes an abuse of court processes, being hasty and prematurely filed without following due process of the law.

Band A customers are premium customers with no government subsidies. However, they have the guarantee of at least 20 hours of electricity supply daily.

With N209.50 per kilowatt-hour, manufacturers who fall under this category of customers said their tariffs have tripled, impacting production costs negatively.