By Tanko Mohammed
In response to yearnings of Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the commencement of a nationwide mass-metering programme as part efforts by the Federal Government to put an end to estimated and arbitrary billing for electricity in Nigeria.
The President’s directive is contained in a statement released on Wednesday evening and signed by the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. James Momoh.
According to the statement, the President “also approved a waiver of the import levy on meters, so that those that do not have meters can be supplied as early as possible at reasonable costs.”
The statement urged the general public and all stakeholders in the power sector to disregard any reports of an arbitrary tariff increase affecting Nigerians as measures have been put in place to protect the poor and vulnerable in cases of tariff reviews.
Clarifying the position of the Federal Government on the tariff issue, the statement said “NERC wishes to clarify that tariff reviews going forward will only follow service-based principles”.
According to the statement, “Under these service-based principles Distribution Companies (DISCOs) will only be able to review tariff rates for customers when they consult with customers, commit to increasing the number of hours of supply per day and quality of service.”
“In all cases poor and vulnerable Nigerians will not experience any increase. In line with these expectations, DISCOs are directed to engage with their customers on a Service Based Tariff structure.
Under the Service Based Tariff Structure, DISCOs can only review tariffs for customers under the following certain conditions.
“Customers are consulted and communicated a guaranteed level of electricity service by the DISCOs based on hours of supply.
“No estimated billing through the strict enforcement of the capping regulation. This means that unmetered customers will not experience any cost increase beyond what is chargeable to metered customers in the same area,” the NERC assured customers.
Proving further clarification on the impact of tariff increase on the poor and vulnerable, the Federal Government has assured that “even under the above conditions, there will be no change in tariff for the most vulnerable as tariffs for those consuming 50KW or less remain frozen. Customers receiving less than 12 hours of supply will also not experience any change in tariffs.”
