Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has launched another campaign for further increase in electricity tariff. Adelabu, at a meeting with the chairmen of Generating Companies of Nigeria (GenCos) in Abuja on May 5, 2025, said: "Citizens must pay the appropriate price for the energy consumed."
Earlier in February, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said in faraway Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, while attending a World Bank-backed conference that increase in electricity tariffs were necessary to support essential maintenance, enhance reliability and attract private investment in power generation and transmission.
Verheijen, however, said "One of the key challenges we're looking to resolve over the next few months is transitioning to a cost-efficient but cost-reflective tariff," though the stumbling block was how to mitigate the impact on low-income households through subsidies.
This insensitive penchant to campaign for increase in electricity tariff has always been touted as one of the cure-all for the ills bedevilling the power sector. And it didn't start now.
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On January 31, 2024, Adelabu proposed the shocking proposition of migration to "full cost-reflective tariff regime" of zero subsidy for electricity. His argument was that in the West African sub-region, Nigerians pay the lowest electricity tariff as Ghana, Ivory Coast and Niger Republic pay more than double of the tariffs Nigerians pay.
In fact, since May 2023, the trend has been one of increasing electricity tariffs, with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approving 300% tariff increase for Band A consumers and 65% increase for other bands.
The disheartening issue is that the rhetoric on increased electricity tariffs comes amid poor electricity supply. NERC data showed that Nigeria recorded a decline in electricity generation in the fourth quarter of 2024 with 9,289 GWh/h in Q4 2024 - a decline from the 9,450.76 GWh/h recorded in the third quarter of 2024. Average hourly generation stood at 4,207.41 MWh/h, down from 4,280.24 MWh/h in Q3 2024. And total energy received by Distribution Companies (DisCos) stood at 3,360.77 GWh/h compared to 3,445.13 GWh/h in the third quarter.
The huge supply gap pushes households, commercial and industrial sectors to rely on self-generated power, negatively impacting the economy, especially small-scale businesses, particularly boutiques, cyber cafes, salons, tailoring and grocery shops, which are serviced by small-scale petrol generators. These impose indirect costs, including stress-induced financial, mental and physical health issues.
The dismal performance of the power sector is such that the Presidency voted with their feet, opting out of public power supply as it budgeted N10 billion this year for the installation of solar energy.
This newspaper calls on the minister of Power to stop all moves to increase electricity tariffs and prioritise diligent execution of the national power reform programmes that will give all citizens an efficient electricity sector that provides uninterrupted power supply, and urgently too. We call on the minister to focus more in clearing the rot and business-as-usual attitude in the power sector instead of towing the easier and familiar path of piling up more burdens on Nigerians.
Also, in order to improve revenue collection and eliminate estimated billing, the unacceptable level of metering of electricity consumers, which began with the introduction of prepaid meters by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in 2006, including the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) in 2018 and the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) in 2020, should be given priority attention.
We, therefore, call on the ministry to accelerate the metering programme instead of increasing tariffs. It is also time to end estimated billing. The much-talked-about rolling out of smart meters for seven million households should become a reality instead of just a proclamation.
According to Trading Economics, in 2025, approximately 61.2% of Nigeria's population, about 135 million out of an estimated 220 million people, have access to electricity. This means that roughly 85 million Nigerians still lack access to electricity. Out of this number with electricity, NERC's Third Quarter 2024 report shows that as of September 30, 2024, only 6,156,726 (46.15%) out of the 13,339,635 registered electricity customers across the 12 DisCos were metered. This means that a significant portion, 7.18 million customers (53.8%), remained unmetered. There must be an accelerated programme on metering all unmetered Nigerians while providing electricity to the over 85 million citizens who don't have access.
Moreover, far from increasing tariffs, Daily Trust calls on the federal government to protect vulnerable consumers through targeted subsidies, leveraging on its 40% stake in the privatised six successor Generation Companies (GenCos) and the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos). Provision of targeted subsidies for economically disadvantaged Nigerians must be fully implemented as a public service. Unlike the minister, we believe that our economy can "sustain blanket subsidies indefinitely."
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We demand that the Ministry of Power wakes up from its slumber and show that it is not out of touch with Nigerians. It is the minister's mandate to lead in reversing decades of infrastructure decay and not the monotonous pursuit of tariff increases. There must be a clear sense of capacity to implement policies, regulations and provide management that meets the yearning of Nigerians for reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity supply. The sector cannot be improved by empty promises or constant dirge of increase in electricity tariff.
Moreover, Nigeria must work assiduously to increase its installed power generation, average generation and actual distribution capacities. The installed capacity estimated at 13,435 MW is very low, not to talk of the average available generation capacity of 5,528 MW recorded by the end of last year and actual dispatch through the national grid of about 4,500 MW. The minister's legacy should be about improving the sector and these figures substantially, not increasing tariffs.
