"New electricity tariff to take off in July" – Minister of Power

An upward review of the electricity tariff was announced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) bavkbib March.

The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman has said that an increase in electricity tarriff will take effect as from July.

Speaking at the Senate on Tuesday, Sale stated that the subsidy uncured due to COVID-19 is unsustainable and calls for the implementation of the tariff review.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected our laid-out plan for the repositioning of the electricity market towards financial sustainability under the power sector recovery programme (PSRP).

Initially, the regulator, following the completion of public consultation on tariff review, planned on conducting a tariff review in April 2020. However, due to COVID-19 and customer apathy, the proposed tariff review was delayed by three months.

The impact of this means the subsidy being incurred in maintaining the current tariff level had to be maintained until July 2020 when the proposed tariff review will be implemented. The current situation in the Nigerian power sector is that a lot of capital investment is being made, most of which is dependent on donor funding, loans and budgetary allocation.

For projects that we have already secured their funding, we do not expect any adverse effect.” Sale said.