The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has asked electricity consumers in states with newly established electricity regulators to now direct complaints on issues such as metering, billing, and service delivery to their respective state authorities.
The directive follows the implementation of the Electricity Act 2023, which has decentralised parts of Nigeria’s electricity market and handed regulatory control of intrastate electricity operations to state-level agencies in several parts of the country.
According to NERC, residents in the affected states should no longer forward such complaints to the federal regulator, as responsibility has now been fully transferred to state electricity regulatory bodies.
The change applies to 15 states that have already set up their own regulatory frameworks. These include Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, and Plateau States.
The commission explained that consumers in these states are now expected to engage directly with their state regulators on electricity-related issues.
NERC said the reform is aimed at bringing regulation closer to the people, improving response time, and making it easier to resolve complaints such as estimated billing, delayed meter installation, and poor service delivery by distribution companies.
It added that complaints relating to power supply reliability, metering challenges, and other local electricity concerns will now be handled at the state level for faster intervention.
The commission noted that the decentralised structure is designed to improve efficiency, strengthen accountability, and allow electricity governance to better reflect the needs of individual states.
With the new arrangement now in effect, consumers in the affected states are being encouraged to identify and work with their respective state electricity regulators for quicker resolution of issues.
