Nigerian Government to ‘regularise’ Bands B, C electricity tariffs for improved efficiency –Minister

*Adebayo Adelabu, Minister for Power, unveils the Federal Government’s plans to regularise electricity tariffs of Bands B, C and A power consumers towards ensuring a more efficient and reliable power sector in the Nigerian economy

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Federal Government of Nigeria has disclosed its plans to regularise electricity tariffs of Bands B, C, and A power consumers, to ensure a more efficient and reliable power sector

Chief Adebayo Adelabu, Honourable Minister for Power, stated this in his public presentation of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Nigeria Integrated Resource Plan, in Abuja, FCT.

ConsumerConnect reports the Federal Ministry of Power produced the documents with the support of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the UK Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (UKNIAF) respectively.

The Minister noted that under the current structure, Band B consumers, who enjoy 17 to 18 hours of electricity supply pay N63 per kilowatt-hour.

Whereas electricity consumers on Band A, with only two hours more of supply, are charged N209 per kilowatt-hour

Adedibu also recalled that in 2024, the power sector of the Nigerian economy adopted cost-reflective tariff for a portion of about 15 percent electricity consumers as a way forward.

“It was pilot, and a proof of concept which I believe it had worked the people that are enjoying 20 to 24 hours of electricity supply in a day are happy.

“They are satisfied in spite of the fact that they are paying N209 per kilowatt-hour, as they believe they are better off than when using generators,” stated he.

Review of Band A electricity tariffs 2024

Adedibu further said: “We believe that as we continue to work on revamping our distribution and transmission infrastructure, more and more people will be migrated to Band A.”

The Minister revealed that due to migration of some electricity consumers to Band A last year, the power sector recorded a 70 percent growth in its revenue from N1.05 trillion in 2024 to about N1.7 trillion.

Need for further investments in power sector

The Minister stated: “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 the tariff and see how we can improve on our modest achievement of 2024, not only to grow the sector revenue but to also ensure that we are able to invest more in revamping the dilapidated infrastructure.”

Adedibu explained that with such infrastructure upgrade in place, Nigerian Government can carry the kind of reliable electricity envisaged for the power sector of the economy.

He equally said: “We thought the migration of Band B and C customers will be faster that this, but the Electricity distribution Companies (DisCos) have refused to invest in the power sector.”

Adedibu affirmed the need for more investments in the power sector to achieve accelerated migration of lower-band consumers to Band A.

However, he assured that the proposed regularisation of the tariffs for Band B and C consumers to Band A would be done at a slow pace in the power sector.