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Bill To Reform Power Sector Passes 2nd Reading In Senate …As Reps Probe DisCos Over Illegal Billing
The Senate, yesterday, at plenary passed for second reading, a Bill for an Act to repeal the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act 2005.
Presenting the lead debate on general principles of the bill, its sponsor, Sen. Gabriel Suswan (PDP-Benue), said that the bill seeks among other reasons to repeal the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005.
He said that the bill also seeks to consolidate all legislations in Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and enact an omnibus electricity act for the industry to provide the ideal legal and institutional framework that would guide the post-privatisation phase of the industry in Nigeria.
According to him, the bill also seeks to provide the framework that would attract more investors to leverage on the modest gains of the privatised electricity industry in Nigeria to accelerate growth in power incapacity and improve generation of power through increased investment in new technologies.
This, he said would enhance transmission and distribution of power generated and minimise aggregate value chain loses.
Suswam said, in spite of the modest milestones recorded in the Nigerian power sector, the sector has not been able to make electricity available to 75 per cent rural population as envisaged in the National Electric Power Policy.
“This is because the sector is currently plagued with a number of challenges some of which are operational constraints that emerged after the privatisation exercise.
“While others may be attributed to the gaps inherent in the extant statutory framework,” he explained.
He said that the privatised power sector in Nigeria was facing a myriad of post-privatisation challenges, including the absence of tariffs, inadequate enumeration, metering of consumers, limited access to funds for investment.
Other challenges according to him include high levels of Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC &C) losses and poor revenue generation.
“All these constraints have received various interventions by the Executive and Legislative arms of the Federal Government over the years.
“But these challenges have continued to threaten the viability of successor companies, including their financial capacity to invest in network improvement to guarantee reliable power supply as envisaged in their respective Performance Agreement.”
He said that apart from the operational constraints confronting the post-privatised power sector in Nigeria, the principal act which was the extant legal framework for the industry has some gaps and shortcomings that made it unsuitable to adequately govern activities of the market operator and market participants.
He said that the bill, when passed would provide the framework for power diversification through the use of cleaner renewable energy sources.
“The bill will also eliminate current barriers to private sector investment across the power value chain and attract the funds needed to address the current funding gaps confronting the industry since the privatisation of the power sector,” he said.
The bill, after passing second reading, was referred to the Committee on Power by President of Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, for further legislative work.
The committee is expected to report back to plenary in four weeks.
Similarly, to check the trend of high electricity tariffs by electricity distribution companies (DisCos), the House of Representatives has mandated its committee on power to investigate the allegations of over-billing by Nigerians.
The committee is to investigate the allegations of overbilling, illegal tariff increase, and non-compliance to the directives of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The decision to investigate the DisCos followed the adoption of a motion moved by Bello Shamsudeen from Kano.
Shamsudeen said the NERC ordered that refunds be made to overbilled customers of Electricity Distribution Companies through energy credit of excess charges to the affected individuals and businesses.
He stated that some DisCos are not complying with the directives of NERC.
Shamsudeen said some DisCos are violating Regulation 9(7) of NERC Meter Reading, Billing, Cash Collection and Credit Management for Electricity Suppliers’ Regulation 2007.
The committee was mandated by the House to revert to the House within three weeks.
Nigerians may experience an increase in the prices of premium energy products diesel and petrol as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery temporarily halts 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 said in a statement yesterday.
The $20billion refinery based in Lagos said the sales of its products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude it has received from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the company explained.
The refinery said it remained committed to serving the Nigerian market and 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.
“As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” it said.
The announcement by the refinery comes amid its price war with the NNPCL.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars, and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024, directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States’ greenback.
In the beginning of March 2025, the NNPCL said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months with March 2025 as the expiration date.
The state company, however, said that talks were on to replace the contract, and that over 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024 under the Naira-denominated arrangement.
The NNPCL also said it had made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the private refinery since it commenced operations in 2023.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational for decades until 2024. The country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol more than quadrupled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ¦ 200/litre to about ¦ 1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, the billionaire industrialist commenced operations at the facility situated in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has overtaken Egypt’s Omar Assar to become Africa’s highest-ranked player in the world, now sitting at 18th in the week 12 ranking released on Tuesday.
Aruna moved up from 19th place in week 11 to 18th in the latest ranking, while Assar dropped from 17th to 19th.
Denmark’s Jonathan Groth took over Assar’s 17th place, moving up from 18th.
Despite finishing as runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, Aruna’s impressive performances at the WTT tournaments this year have boosted his ranking.
Aruna remains the only African male player to have reached the semi-finals of the WTT Contender Doha, repeating his 2023 feat earlier this year in January.
This achievement has propelled him ahead of Assar, who beat him to become the champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup.
Aruna’s next tournament is the WTT Contender Chennai which serves off in India from March 23 to 20.
In the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the week 12 ITTF ranking. Her compatriot, Dina Meshref, remained static at 33rd, holding her position as the second-best-ranked female player in Africa.
China’s Wang Chuqin retained his position as the second-best player globally, behind his compatriot Lin Shidong, who continues to hold the top spot. Japanese superstar Tomokazu Harimoto dethroned China’s Liang Jingkun as the third-best player in the world after his semifinal finish in Chongqing.
In the women’s ranking, the top five remained unchanged, with China’s Sun Yingsha holding onto her top spot after retaining her WTT Champions Chongqing title.