Electricity: Court Dismisses MAN’s Suit Challenging Band A tariff hike

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a suit filed by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) challenging the hike of electricity tariff for Band A users.

MAN had challenged the minor review of the electricity tariff by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and filed a lawsuit at the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court.

The manufacturers sought four reliefs: that due process stated in the Act for the review was not fulfilled before AEDC and the others applied to NERC for the tariff review on July 31, 2023.

MAN also held that placing the burden of the tariff increase on only Band “A” feeders and leaving out other bands amounted to discrimination against such consumers.

Following this, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Thursday issued a statement which according to them delivered on Monday, noting that the court has dismissed MAN’s suit.

PUNCH ONLINE stated that, in the judgment, the court considered all the parties’ arguments and ruled that MAN’s suit was an abuse of the court process, being premature and without due regard to the provisions of Section 51 of the Electricity Act 2023.

“The court also held that MAN’s case disclosed no reasonable cause of action as it had not exhausted the dispute resolution mechanism.

“It thus held that the suit was not instituted with due process of law, and consequently struck out the case,” the NERC said.

Band A customers are premium customers with no government subsidies. However, they have the guarantee of at least, 20 hours of electricity supply daily.

With N209.50 per kilowatt-hour, manufacturers who fall under this category of customers said their tariffs have tripled, impacting production costs negatively.