The Federal Government announced on Monday that it is in discussions with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and power distribution companies to provide compensation to high-paying Band A users affected by recent blackouts in northern Nigeria.
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, revealed that those impacted by the outages will be exempt from billing for the blackout days. “They will be exempt from billing for those periods,” he stated during a press briefing after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
Adelabu emphasized that customers enduring prolonged power outages would not incur charges for the duration of the disruptions, assuring that residential, commercial, and industrial users will all benefit from this exemption. A widespread blackout recently affected 17 northern states, leaving millions without electricity, which officials attributed to vandalism that damaged the vital Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line, a key source of electricity for the region.
