Barely two months after Nigerians had their electricity tariffs hiked, the Federal Government has again announced over 50 percent increase in electricity tariff effective January 1, 2021.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) conveyed the new tariff hike in a revised Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) signed by its new Chairman, Sanusi Garba, an engineer, on December 30, 2020.
All customers of the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) are to pay the new tariff.
The tariff increase which took effect on January 1, 2021, according to the revised MYTO, supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.
The NERC stated in the new Order referenced NERC/225/2020, that it considered certain factors before arriving at the latest tariff.
According to the commission, the factors considered included 14.9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020, foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020, available generation capacity, US inflation rate of 1.22 per cent and the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of the power firms.
Unlike the tariff of November 2020 that exempted low power consumers, the revised Service Based Tariff (SBT) affected all classes of electricity users.
The new tariff will be in force till June 2021 when a Cost Reflective Tariff (CRT) expected to raise the new cost higher will be activated from June to December 2021.
