Buhari orders mass metering in bid to end estimated billings

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a nationwide metering of electricity consumers in a bid to check estimated billings.

In a statement on Wednesday, James Momoh, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said the president has approved change in electricity tariff.

Momoh said “poor and vulnerable” Nigerians will be exempted from electricity tariff increase.

TheCable had reported that Buhari, on Tuesday, approved the implementation of the proposed cost-reflective energy tariff for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), while residential areas classified as “poor” will not be affected.

The NERC chairman added that customers on estimated billing will not also be affected as the president has ordered mass metering of consumers across the country.

“NERC wishes to clarify that tariff reviews going forward will only follow service-based principles. Under these service-based principles 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,” Momoh said.

“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 conditions.

“Customers are consulted and communicated a guaranteed level of electricity service by the DISCOs based on hours of supply; customers are metered; 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. 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. In addition, the President has directed that there should be a nationwide mass-metering program in an effort by the Federal Government to put a stop to estimated and arbitrary billing for electricity.”

In January, NERC had announced that there would be an upward review of electricity tariffs across the country from April 1.

However, it directed electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to suspend the proposed tariff increase in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.