Sale Mamman: Proposed electricity tariff review not a major hike

Sale Mamman, minister of power, says there are no plans to significantly hike electricity tariff.

On Monday, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) announced plan to introduce another tariff review increase for the 11 distribution companies (DisCos) in the country, starting from July.

But in a statement in Abuja on Friday, Mamman said the review is just a routine procedure and not a major increase.

The minister said Nigerians should rather expect an increase in efficiency from the sector to reduce tariffs while managing headwinds from foreign exchange and inflation.

“The tariff for customers on service bands D & E (customers being served less than an average of 12hrs of supply per day over a period of one month) remains subsidized in line with the policy direction of the Federal Government,” Mamman said.

“The Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) per NERCs regulation obtains inputs from operators in the market every 6 months to perform minor reviews and a major review is required every 5 years. Thus, as in January a minor review will occur in June. Given the timing for the Extraordinary review has also elapsed, a review will occur for consideration in Jan 2021.”

The minister added that the federal government is committed to eliminating the metering gap with the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).