Barely two months after the hike in electricity tariffs, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, under President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved a new increase of over 50 percent for consumers nationwide,
According to a revised Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO, signed by the Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, on December 30, 2020, and sighted on Tuesday, the new tariff increase took effect on January 1, 2021, and supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.
In the new Order NERC/225/2020, the Commission considered the 14.9 percent inflation rate rise in November 2020, foreign exchange of N379.4/$1, as at December 29, 2020, available generation capacity, US inflation rate of 1.22 percent, and the Capital Expenditure, CAPEX, of the power firms, to raise the tariffs.
The revised Service Based Tariff, SBT, also saw an increase in the rates payable by all classes of electricity users, unlike the one of November 2020, that exempted low power getters.
This is effective till June 2021, while a Cost Reflective Tariff, CRT, expected to raise the new cost higher will be activated from June to December 2021, the NERC Order revealed.
Recall, that NERC had raised electricity tariffs for the 11 DisCos in the country, in September, drawing outrage from customers and the Organised Labour.
The Federal Government therefore, ordered for the suspension of the decision, in view of the economic hardship occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, but on November 1, the suspended tariff regime was reintroduced with some discounts for a segment of customers.