…N3trillion aid in 31 months
When Nigeria’s electricity regulator dissolved the board of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company on Aug. 10, it cited a company that owed more than it could pay and had no plan to close the gap.
Nine months of market data analysed by BusinessDay showed Kaduna DisCos weren’t outliers, as Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies are drowning in debt while the federal treasury bleeds billions of naira to keep the lights on for consumers who still can’t get reliable power.
In Africa’s most populous country, the power tariff is built on a model in which customers with reliable service pay a premium rate, and that premium is supposed to subsidise cheaper power for everyone billed lower down the ladder.
In practice, that cross-subsidy barely exists. Government, not premium customers, is the one closing the gap, and it is closing most of it for nearly every distribution company in
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