…As NERC hands over regulatory oversight to states
By Olakunle Olafioye, George Onyejiuwa, Isaac Anumihe, Bamigbola Gbolagunte and Femi Folaranmi
Nigeria’s ailing power situation is showing no sign of encouraging recuperation as the search for alternative sources of electricity remains a major concern for homes, businesses and government institutions in the country. One major pointer to the debilitating power situation in the country is the commencement of the proposed N10 billion Villa Solar Power Project at the nation’s seat of power.
The federal government had cited unsustainable electricity bills as one of the reasons for the project. The Director General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Mustapha Abdullahi, while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the project in April, had added that the project, in addition to being a cost-cutting measure, would provide uninterrupted, clean energy, create jobs, foster innovation among Nigerian engineers and energy experts, and ultimately reduce pressure on the national grid.
The government’s decision to go off the national grid is coming at a time when Nigerians are lamenting over worsening power supply, with mounting electricity bills threatening the survival of many businesses and homes. Added to these is the allegation that the Distribution Companies (DisCos) are preying ruthlessly on consumers as the National Electricity Regulation Company (NERC) abdicates its regulatory oversight to states’ agencies.
Angry electricity consumers are citing the Nigerian Electricity Act of 2023, signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which empowers the states to regulate their own electricity markets, as the grounds for their exploitation by power distribution companies in the country. The act repeals the 2005 Electricity and Power Sector Reform Act and introduced a comprehensive legal and institutional framework.
Since 2023, over 10 states have applied and taken possession of the distribution and supply operations of the electricity supply value chain. The states include Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Imo, Oyo, Edo, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun and Niger, while full transfer for Plateau is on September 12 2025. So far, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has received notices from Delta and Abia to take over power operations in their states.
Visits by Sunday Sun Correspondents to undertaking units and offices of some of the distribution companies showed long queues of disgruntled consumers lamenting woes of exploitations, extortions, poor supply and inability to get their complaints resolved by the officials and staff of the company.
In Ogun, customers groan
For example, at the Iyesi-Ota, Ogun State undertaking unit of the Ibadan Electric Distribution Company, (IBEDC), a consumer who simply identified himself as Lateef, accused IBEDC of exploitation by billing him exorbitantly on a monthly basis almost a year after applying for a prepaid meter and paid for same.
According to him, “I relocated to my site in October, 2024. Surprisingly, I was issued an estimated bill of about N13, 000 for the same month barely a week after moving into the house. The following month, which was November, I was given another bill, with the title: November bill (October Consumption) with slight difference in the amount. When I came here for an explanation, I was told that this is the practice here. What sort of exploitative practice is that? To add insult to injury, they jerked up my monthly consumption to N17, 500 since January, yet they refused to bring the meter I paid for since last November,” he said, adding that repeated visits failed to yield any results.
Another electricity consumer was overheard fuming over a recurring electricity bill he claimed to have paid over four months and his inability to get metered more than four months after paying for the meter. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) stipulates that an electricity customer should be metered between 10 days after applying and paying for a prepaid meter.
The aggrieved customer, while speaking to Sunday Sun after his complaint, said he lodged a similar complaint to NERC but got a reply which indicated that NERC had transferred its regulatory oversight to some states including Ogun State where he resides. “Unfortunately, NERC’s reply did not provide any contact information about the state’s NERC Forum office. When I eventually spotted it on the last bill I was given, the phone number on it, 09139381008, remained permanently unavailable. I also sent an email to the email address provided on it: HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” \t “_blank” [email protected], but I have not got any reply till date. You can see my frustration. Where else can seek redress now,” he queried.
Residents lament in Imo
In Imo, residents say the taking over of power generation by the state through Orashi Power Company, an Egyptian firm and Transpower Company, the successor company to Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, had yet to translate to any form of improvement in power situation in the state. While the power supply remains epileptic in most parts of the state, electricity consumers said high tariff and humongous billings remain a major source of headache to households and businesses.
An aluminum fabricator at the World Bank area of Owerri, Mr. Kachi Stanley, lamented that he pays N25, 000 monthly as electricity bill to the Transpower Company despite the epileptic power supply. “But despite the huge bill, the power supply remains abysmally poor. I have complained several times to them but nothing has changed. I was told that the state government is now in charge of electricity but nothing has changed yet,” Kachi stated.
Similarly, Philip Ogazie, a prominent hotelier at Works Layout in Owerri, decried the erratic power supply in the state. He described the power situation in the state as frustrating, saying he now depends on diesel-powered generating sets to ensure that guests are not plunged into darkness.
“I must tell you, it is not just frustrating, but also very annoying. When we heard that Imo State Electricity Regulatory was taken over, we had thought that things would improve. But right now, our major headache is the intermittent outages as nothing has changed from the EEDC to their successor Transpower,” he said lamentably.
In Ondo, lamentations everywhere
Despite being one of the states where NERC no longer has jurisdiction following the transfer of its regulatory oversight to the states, residents of Ondo State being served by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) said they are far from reaping the expected benefits of the new arrangement. Some customers of BEDC expressed serious concern over the services of the company.
Some of the customers told Sunday Sun that there has been no noticeable improvement on the distribution of electricity by BEDC as many communities have continued to experience epileptic power supply.
For instance, in some areas in Akure, the Ondo State capital, power supply remains epileptic, a development that has raised serious concern among residents of the affected areas.
Findings revealed that areas like Gbogi, Adegbola, Orita Obele and Cathedral hardly enjoy electricity for most parts of the day, thereby affecting commercial activities in the area. A resident of the area, Mr. Iyanda Elijah lamented the poor supply of electricity despite having to pay more due to tariff hike, adding that the ugly development has drastically affected the life of many residents of the area.
He therefore appealed to the state government to prevail on the authorities of BEDC to improve on its services as many people suffer silently due to poor supply of electricity.
Joe Ade, another customer of the BEDC in Ore, headquarters of Odigbo Local Government Area of the state, who equally complained about the poor power supply in the town and many other towns and villages in Ondo South Senatorial District, explained that many businesses are folding up even as several people are relocating to other parts of the country due to the epileptic power supply in the area. He said the Nigeria Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had assisted at different times to restore power to the area but the distribution of power was still erratic.
Bayelsa residents await govt takeover
In Bayelsa State, residents are eagerly looking forward to the eventual takeover of power generation and distribution in the state by the state government as many residents of the state alleged that they have been left to grapple with an epileptic power supply in spite of having to pay humongous amount of money for power consumption.
They are therefore looking forward to the state government’ takeover of power generation and distribution following the 2023 signing of the Electricity Bill, which empowers the state government to undertake the responsibility to generate and distribute electricity for commercial purposes.
Findings by Sunday Sun revealed that most communities in the state have yet to be metered. For example, in Akenfa, Agudama-Epie, Amarata, Onopa, Kpansia, and Opolo, covered by PHEDC, several houses are still on estimated billing. Many residents attributed the estimated billing method to a grand conspiracy to continue fleecing the people just as those willing to procure prepaid meters claimed PHEDC deliberately made it scarce, ostensibly to continue the regime of estimated billing.
A resident of Onopa, Mr Roland Osei, alleged that the non-availability of prepaid meters was a deliberate ploy to ensure the regime of estimated billing is sustained. “PHEDC makes so much money from estimated billing and they are not ready to stop it now. The non-installation of prepaid meters is beneficial to PHEDC officials who continue to milk the poor masses in Yenagoa,” he claimed.
Stakeholders sceptical
With the mounting disaffection from consumers following the transfer of regulatory oversight to state, analysts said the end-users who are the target of the reform are worse off even as they are sceptical about the capacity of states to operate the sector effectively. To this effect, they are of the view that the distribution sector, which is the weakest link in the power supply value chain, has remained fragile even in the hands of the states.
Leading this pack of sceptics is the National President, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Executive Director, Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, Chief Princewill Okorie. In his view, giving regulatory power to the states amounts to playing to the gallery because, according to him, the same politicians that made power supply unworkable at the federal level are also at the state level.
“The politicians in the states will take over the electricity business and exploit the people more. I have been calling on the National Assembly to have a review of the performance of the power sector since 2019 so that the truth can be seen. There should be no anti-consumer policies in the power sector because it will be reflected more at the state level.
“It’s not about reducing tariffs. The problem is the ability to enforce the regulation. Have we reviewed the regulation with a view to metering? How many people got meters under the mass metering programme? Have we reviewed the operating expenses (OPEX) and capital expenditures (CAPEX)? The capital expenditure that was approved for them, how much was invested?
“How many transformers does the company own and how many are they going to provide? So, shifting this thing (regulation) to the states is just like NERC trying to shift responsibilities and politicians want to buy over the sector and replicate what is happening at the national level at the state level. The only way to correct this is to have a national conference or summit to review the performance of the power sector from 2013 till date. This policy (handing over power to states) does not in any way, protect the consumers.
But a lecturer of journalism at the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Dr Austin Maho, posited that it is still too early in the day to judge the effectiveness of the deregulation of the electricity sector of the economy, adding that the states need time to install some equipment.
His words: “The states need time to build capacity, and we all know that electricity is a capital-intensive venture. They also need time to attract capital to the sector. In a sector where the federal government, with all its might, has failed over the decades, we don’t expect the states to do magic overnight. It takes time to build capacity and attract the right investment to the sector so that we can begin to have stable electricity.”
