- Dangote slashes petrol price to N867/litre
Festus Okoromadu
Udeme Bassey
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has slammed a cumulative fine of over N628 million on eight Electricity Distribution Companies for violating the capped billing regulations for unmetered customers.
The affected DisCos include Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Eko, Enugu, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, and Yola.
They were found to have failed to fully comply with the Commission’s approved monthly energy caps between July and September 2024 (Q3 2024).
The NERC introduced the capping order in 2020 to protect unmetered consumers from arbitrary billing practices, a persistent source of complaints from electricity users across the country.
NERC, in a statement disclosed that the sanctions are in line with Section 34(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 2023.
The Commission said it discovered through its review that the DisCos had overbilled unmetered customers contrary to Order No: NERC/197/2020, which capped estimated bills based on average usage of metered customers on the same feeder.
According to the Commission, the total fine imposed represents five per cent of the naira value of the gross overbilling during the period under review.
In addition to the monetary sanction, NERC has directed the sanctioned DisCos to issue appropriate credit adjustments to all affected customers.
“The credits are to be reflected by May 15, 2025, marking the end of the April 2025 billing cycle.
“The Commission reaffirms its commitment to regulatory compliance and consumer protection within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry,” the statement added.
Dangote slashes petrol price to N867/litre
Meanwhile, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has reviewed its ex-depot (gantry) loading cost of petrol to ₦867 per litre.
It was gathered that the $20bn refinery informed its marketers and customers of the slash on Thursday.
Checks into petroleumprice.ng confirmed that the private refinery reduced its gantry price by ₦13 on Thursday morning.
Filling stations like MRS Oil & Gas, Ardova Plc, Heyden, and others with special agreements with the Dangote Refinery are expected to reduce their pump price to around ₦910 from around ₦925 to reflect the marginal reduction in the ex-depot price of the premium commodity.
The price reduction by the private refinery followed a meeting between representatives of the Dangote Refinery and the Minister of Finance Wale Edun on Tuesday.
At the end of the meeting, the government said that the naira-for-crude was still in effect and that the initiative was not a temporary measure but a “key policy directive designed to support sustainable local refining”.
The government also said the initiative is still in effect and will continue immediately, overruling the decision of the NNPCL under its former boss, Mele Kyari which tenured the initiative.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council in July 2024 directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in the United States’ greenback.
However, in March 2025, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months, with March 2025 as the expiration date.
Subsequently, the $20bn Dangote Refinery temporarily halted the sale of petroleum products in Naira. “This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in US dollars,” the company had said.
Immediately, the pump price of petrol jumped from around ₦860 to about ₦1,000, making consumers pay at least ₦70 more than what it used to cost them to buy a litre of the premium commodity days earlier.
The refinery, however, said it would resume the sale of its product to the local market in Naira as soon as it received crude cargoes from the NNPCL in Naira.
Days later, President Bola Tinubu fired Kyari and the entire NNPCL Board. In their stead, the president appointed a new 11-man board with Bashir Ojulari as the Group chief executive officer and Ahmadu Kida as non-executive chairman.
The resumption of Naira-denominated crude sales, experts believe, would reduce the strain on the US dollar and guarantee the price stability of petroleum products.
Nigerians are expected to experience some relief from high, dollar-denominated imported fuel with the resumption of the naira-for-crude initiative.
