No increase in electricity tariff for residential consumers till June—NERC

The Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, has said that the commission has not increased energy tariff for residential buildings.

Amadi made the explanation in Abuja on Tuesday at a news conference.

NERC on Dec. 23, 2014 had approved the review of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2.1 regime with take-off date of Jan. 1 for commercial consumers.

He said the review was not expected to bring about any increase in tariff to residential customers on R2, who formed 80 per cent of electricity consumers, till June.

"Let me state upfront for the sake of clarity that NERC has not increased tariff for residential consumers for now.

"While the scheduled increase will apply to other classes of consumers from Jan. 1, it will not affect residential consumers until June 2015,"he said.

Amadi said the decision to begin the implementation of the residential tariff in June was to balance the legitimate demand for adequate electricity supply with new charges.

"The freeze was designed to primarily protect and promote the interest of the consumers as well as stimulate operators to serve customers better," he said.

He said it would be unfair for the commission to ask consumers to pay higher tariffs given the current level of service delivery and consumption perceptions.

Amadi said although electricity distribution companies were not happy about the phased approach to increase in tariff, the commission had a responsibility to protect consumers.

On metering, the chairman said the commission was not satisfied with the level of meter deployment by electricity distribution companies.

He said that NERC expected the companies to use the next six months to improve on their meter spread.

Amadi said the commission was taking some regulatory measures to ensure that distribution companies provided meters for consumers.