Grace Cofie
The Federal Government has made plans to carry out a review of power tariff which may cause power consumers all over the country to begin more payment for electricity.
This came on Wednesday as the FG said it had commenced the procurement of four million meters meant to be distributed free of charge to unmetered power users nationwide.
It also put the number of unmetered electricity consumers in Nigeria at about eight million, adding that over 860, 000 meters were distributed for free to power users on phase zero of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
The Deputy General Manager, Consumer Affairs, NERC, Shittu Shuaibu, described the procurement of the four million free meters as the phase one of the NMMP, which has begun.
Shuaibu, who spoke during a live radio programme monitored in Abuja, also said the Meter Asset Providers, working with the distribution companies, had been able to deploy about 860,000 meters under phase zero of the mass metering programme.
He said, “The programme is supposed to run in three phases which include phase zero, phase one and phase two. Phase Zero was rounded up around the end of October. Phase One has actually commenced and it is another government intervention of about four million meters.
“So far we have deployed about 860,000 or close to 900,000 meters, which were part of the one million meters that was procured as part of government intervention. For the four million meters, the procurement process has commenced.”
He explained that the mass metering intervention was not free as such because the government was giving out loans for the provision of these meters to Nigerians.
Shuaibu said power distribution companies would be part of the loans and we’re to refund it over a period of 10 years at a very reasonable rate through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On the plans for tariff review, the Nigeria Electricity Regulation Company (NERC) in a notice on the review of transmission loss factor in Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO), informed the general public and industry stakeholders of the commission’s intention to commence two key reviews.
He outlined them to include the Extraordinary Review of Transmission Company of Nigeria’s Loss Factor (TLF) in the MYTO, and the processes for the December 2021 review of MYTO –2021.
It said the December 2021 MYTO review was to consider changes in relevant macroeconomic indices, generation capacity and capital expenditure required for evacuation and distribution of the available generation capacity in compliance with extant rules.
The commission explained that pursuant to the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, the NERC adopted the MYTO methodology in setting out the basis and procedures for reviewing electricity tariffs in Nigeria.
