The Nigeria government has subsidised its electricity sector by around $176 million in the second quarter of 2023 to cover tariff shortfall funding. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said in its recently released quarterly report that “in the absence of cost-reflective tariffs, the government undertakes to cover the resultant gap (between the cost-reflective and allowed tariff) in the form of tariff shortfall funding.”This funding is applied to the NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading plc) invoices that are to be paid by discos (electricity distribution companies), of which there are 11. Nigeria: Project to supply electricity through battery energy service“This is an increase of N99.21 billion ($129.7m) compared to the N36.02 billion ($47.1m) incurred in 2023/Q1.”This represents a 275% increase. On average, the subsidy obligation incurred by the government per month was N45.08 billion ($58.9m) in 2023/Q2,” the report said. This was attributed to poor customer enumeration, insufficient metering, inaccurate meters, and energy theft (commercial loss).

Source: The North Africa Journal October 18, 2023 10:42 UTC