The federal government has spent N375.8 billion on electricity subsidies from January to September this year, as power consumers paid N782.6 billion for the commodity during the same period.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, disclosed this in its first, second, and third quarters of 2023 reports.
According to the report, power distribution companies billed electricity users a total of N1.06 trillion nationwide during the nine months, during which they collected N782.6 billion.
Providing reasons for the subsidy in its just-released third-quarter 2023 report, the NERC stated that it was due to the absence of cost-reflective tariffs.
On the payment of electricity bills, it was observed from the three quarterly reports of the power regulator that consumers paid N247.09bn, N267.86bn and N267.61 billion in the first, second and third quarters of 2023, respectively.
This represents a total of N782.56 billion.
Accordingly, during the first, second, and third quarters, the electricity bills from Discos to consumers were N349.55 billion, 354.61 billion, and N359.38 billion, respectively.
The total bill for the nine months was N1.06 trillion.
