By Udeme Akpan

THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, weekend, directed the Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos, to commence the collection of Service Based Tariff, SBT, from September 2021.

This is targeted at increasing the cost of electricity by over 50 per cent, in order to enable the government end subsidy in the electricity sector.

Already, the 11 Discos have started to inform their customers, who have been calling for improved services and mass deployment of prepaid meters nationwide.

For instance, in a message to its customers, obtained by Vanguard, Saturday, the General Manager, Loss Reduction, Olumide Anthony-Jerome, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, disclosed that the tariff would be increased by between N42.44 and 58.94 per kilowatts, depending on their classification.

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Specifically, the company, stated: “This is to officially notify you that there will be an increase in electricity tariff with effect from 1st September 2021. This increase is a result of a nationwide mandate to implement the Service-Based Tariff approved by our regulator NERC.

“Kindly note that, the increase will be reflected on the energy bill for October 2021 which will represent energy consumption for September 2020.”

It added: “In addition, for our metered customers with internal vending arraignments, we urge you to adjust the rates accordingly to reflect the new tariff increase as released by NERC.”