Nigerian Government Imposes 50% Sanctions on DisCos Over Outages

The Nigerian government has announced its intention to impose a 50 per cent sanction on electricity distribution companies (DisCos) over incessant outages and poor service delivery to consumers.

Musiliu Useni, the vice chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), made this statement on Monday via the commission’s X account, urging DisCos to improve their performance or face consequences.

“NERC will look at performance on a case by case basis. Sanctions and actions will not be the same. Ensure that you improve your efficiency. If your efficiency is at the level expected, you will get your full OPEX. If you don’t perform, you will only get 50% of your admin OPEX,” said Useni.

In the past weeks, there has been a reduced electricity supply in parts of Nigeria, with the drop in power supply being attributed to gas constraints and debts by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

In response to this issue, the Minister of Power inaugurated a committee to fix the drop in electricity supply nationwide. However, the issue of elliptic power supply has been persistent in some parts of Nigeria.

The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), which services the southeast region, has also acknowledged the drop in power supply and stated that it is beyond the organization.

As the Nigerian government takes a firm stance on the performance of DisCos, it remains to be seen whether this new measure will lead to an improvement in electricity supply across the nation.