Electricity subsidies rise to N199.6bn – NERC

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has disclosed that the federal government’s electricity subsidies payable for December have risen by 2.76 per cent to N199.64 billion from the N194.26 billion incurred in November.

The commission disclosed this in its December 2024 Multi-Year Tariff Order posted on its website on Tuesday.

It also retained electricity tariffs across all customer categories. While band-A customers continued to pay N209/kWh, allowed tariffs for customers in Bands B to E remained frozen at the rate payable from December 2022.

With the policy, the government is expected to pay N29.10bn (up from N27.86bn in November) as subsidies for consumers under Abuja Disco. While consumers under Ikeja Electric would enjoy electricity subsidies of N26.68bn from the government.

NERC explained that the rise in the exchange rate, which it pegged at N1,687.45 to the dollar, increase in inflation to 33.9 per cent, and changes in available generation capacity necessitated the minor review.

On wholesale gas-to-power prices, NERC stated, “The review maintains the benchmark gas-to-power price of $2.42/MMBTU based on the established benchmark price of gas-to-power by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.”

The commission maintained that the “approved tariffs shall remain in force subject to monthly adjustment of pass-through indices including inflation rate, NGN/dollar exchange rate and gas-to-power prices.”

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