The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has extended the planned increase in tariffs for residential consumers to June this year while charges for other classes of consumers have taken effect from January first.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the chairman of the NERC, Dr Sam Amadi, said that the freeze in charges for residential consumers, who constitute about 80 per cent of the electricity consumers, was aimed at promoting the interest of consumers as well as stimulate operators to serve consumers better.
Dr Amadi expressed worries over the rate of meter deployment by electricity distribution companies in-spite of the credited advancement payment initiatives.
Since private companies took over ownership of some unbundled government stake in the power sector, new owners have said they needed to increase tariff in order to meet the needed increase in generating capacity of the plants.
