NERC announces electricity subsidy mounts up 2.76%
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Power supply subsidy payable by the federal government has risen 2.76 per cent to N199.64 billion in December from N194.26 billion in November, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced in the face of unstable supply now made worse by frequent grid collapses.
The December 2024 Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) posted on the website of the NERC retains electricity tariff across all customer categories.
Band A customers will continue to pay N209/kWh and tariffs for Bands B to E remain frozen at the rate payable from December 2022.
The NERC said going by the policy, the government is expected to pay N29.10 billion in December (up from N27.86 in November) as subsidy for consumers under Abuja DisCo, and those under Ikeja Electric would enjoy N26.68 billion subsidy.
It explained that the review was necessitated by the rise in exchange rate, which it pegged at N1,687.45 to the dollar, increase in inflation to 33.9 per cent, and changes in available generation capacity.
“The review maintains the benchmark gas-to-power price of $2.42/MMBTU based on the established benchmark price of gas-to-power by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA,” the NERC said.
“Approved tariffs shall remain in force subject to monthly adjustment of pass-through indices including inflation rate, NGN/dollar exchange rate and gas-to-power prices”.
But Electricity Consumers Protection Centre Executive Director Princewill Okorie told Vanguard that subsidy without adequate supply is meaningless.
“The government cannot continue to fund the DisCos while they fail to provide the services they are required to provide. Power supply has been abysmal and consumers continue to be billed for electricity they did not consume through estimated billing by the DisCos,” he said.
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