By Dr. Sebastine Chukwuebuka Okafor, Ph.D
On the 18th of July, 2025, the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) issued an Order to MainPower Electricity Distribution Limited, announcing the reduction of electricity tariff of all the consumers in Band A from ₦209/kWh to ₦160/kWh effective from August 1st, 2025.
Announcing the tariff reduction, which attracted praises across the nation, especially from Enugu State residents, the EERC Chairman, Chijioke Okonkwo, said that the reduction in tariff became imperative following the Commission’s review of MainPower’s tariff and license applications as the new subsidiary company (SubCo) that operates in Enugu State.
According to him, “We reviewed their entire costs, using our Tariff Methodology Regulations 2024, and the supporting Distribution Tariff Model to get an average price of ₦94.
“The price is low because the Federal Government has been subsidising electricity generation costs, which charges only ₦45 out of the actual cost of ₦112. That was how we came about the average tariff of ₦94 as cost-reflective tariff at our level as a subnational electricity market.”
Recall that electricity regulation in the country has been overseen by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), but with the approval of the 2023 Electricity Act by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, state governments are empowered to generate, transmit and distribute their own electricity. They also have the power to establish their own electricity regulatory commissions that would regulate electricity market within the states. It is such laws that birthed MainPower Electricity Distribution Limited, which is a subsidiary of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), responsible for power distribution in the state.
Enugu State became the first state to start the implementation of this law, with Governor Peter Ndubisi Mbah assuring the residents that they would experience improvement in their electricity availability as his administration is focused on growing the state's GDP from $4.4n to $30b. While inaugurating the EERC board, the Governor assured that Enugu State, being the first state to adopt the 2023 Electricity Act, would continue to lead while others follow.
But what the residents, especially those under MSME that drive the economy, are currently experiencing is the worst form of blackout. The worst is even that there is no solution to the problem. This is because, for 17 days now, most parts of the state have been in darkness over the inability of MainPower Electricity Distribution Limited to serve its customers due to the reduction in tariff by EERC. Information gathered from sources close to the distribution company in Enugu indicates that their mother company, EEDC, is going to lose over ₦1bn monthly should they implement the tariff as instructed by EERC. This, however, prompted them to reduce the energy allocation to MainPower thereby cutting off supply to all the customers in Bands B, C, D, and E, which thus indicates that over 52.2% of the electricity consumers in the state have been in blackout for over 17 days without any hope of the issue being resolved soonest.
Saddened by this situation and claims by EERC that there is energy subsidy paid by the Federal Government for all the electricity users, I personally embarked on investigations to unearth whether EERC is actually telling the truth or lying to Enugu residents. Results indicate that there are 11 Discos in Nigeria, excluding Aba Power Limited (operated by Geometric Power). Out of these Discos, the Band A tariff charged by EEDC is ₦209.50/kWh (exclusive of 7.5%VAT); Jos Electricity Distribution Company charges ₦209.50/kWh (exclusive of 7.5% VAT); Benin Electricity Distribution Company: ₦209.50/kWh; Ikeja Electric: ₦209.50/kWh; Yola Electricity Distribution Company: ₦209.50/kWh; Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company: ₦209.50/kWh, while Aba Power Limited (operated by Geometric Power), charges its Band A customers ₦219/kWh. The N219/kWh tariff charged by Aba Power Limited is even because they did not include wheeling or TCN charges as the power comes directly from the state; but for the tariff for Enugu which includes TCN charges, EERC wants everything to be reduced to N160.40/kwh. Does that make sense?
It is noteworthy that NERC had on the 1st of July, 2024, pegged the tariff at ₦209.50/kWh from the previous ₦206.80/kWh.
From the above points, one would begin to wonder about the intentions of EERC to announce energy tariff reduction when it is not ready to take care of the shortfall. Reducing the tariff is a wonderful idea, but doing so without making provision for the deficits doesn't make any sense. It is very clear that the assertion by EERC on the Federal Government subsidising energy for consumers is incongruous and thus erroneous, as such does not exist.
A few days ago, the NERC leadership, as well as the Minister of Power, came out to criticize the declaration made by EERC, as it did not show any plans of covering the financial shortfall which would likely be encountered.
Moving ahead, can we also recall that in October 2024, EERC also issued license to Fedikore Limited to generate 10 megawatts of electricity for the State Government so as to boost the state's generating capacity. But how the company vanished still remains a mystery to many, although there are grapevine reports that the company backed out when the State Government refused to allow them to sell their energy at their proposed ₦250/kWh.
Furthermore, is it not surprising that Geometric Power which is a private company that generates and distributes its own energy, will be selling their energy at ₦219/kWh, whereas Enugu State, that has no contribution to the national grid, is championing for a tariff slash of N160/kWh in Enugu? This is not just a joke but appears more like a mockery of NDI Enugu's intelligence and emotions.
Fellow Nigerians, especially residents of Enugu, it is high time we begin to question the sincerity of both EERC and the Enugu State Government. Their actions in recent weeks have proven that they are more interested in political showmanship than in providing practical solutions to the suffering of electricity consumers. The fanfare around the tariff reduction was nothing but a deceptive public relations stunt designed to score cheap political points.
The EERC’s reckless decision has plunged over half of the state into darkness, crippling businesses and throwing households into unimaginable hardship. Instead of proactively engaging stakeholders to ensure a balanced and sustainable power distribution plan, they have resorted to passing the blame and making empty promises. This is not leadership; it is irresponsibility at its peak.
Furthermore, the silence of the Enugu State Government on the prolonged blackout is shameful. For a government that claimed to be focused on economic growth, allowing such a catastrophic disruption to persist without intervention reveals either gross incompetence or deliberate neglect. In either case, the people of Enugu deserve better than being used as pawns in a poorly thought-out energy policy experiment.