Nigerians will now pay more for prepaid electricity meters.

This is as prices of the meters have gone up just seven weeks after electricity tariff hike on April 3.

The development comes after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission announced the deregulation of Meter Asset Provider.

Recall that on April 30, NERC, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and Commissioner of Legal, Licensing, and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, removed electricity meter price capping.

Before NERC announced the meter price deregulation, electricity distribution companies sold single and three-phased meters at a capped price of N81,975.16 and N143,836.16. However, a recent meter price announcement by Discos showed that the price of single and three meters have surged to as high as N135,240.01 and N241,875.00, depending on the vendor company.

It was gathered that the Abuja Electricity Company quoted between N91,835.10 and N135,240.01 for single-phased metres by different metre vendors. Also, AEDC said the price of a three-phase metre is between N160,646.93 and N241,875.00.

Eko Electricity Distribution Company’s new meter prices increased from N122,337.76 to N167,700 for a single-phase meter. Also, the phase meter rose to N206.737.42 and N258,000.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said in a ministerial briefing in Abuja last week that Nigerians’ experience following the electricity tariff hike is temporary.

Meanwhile, outside of rising energy costs, Nigerians have continued to groan over the untamed rise in the cost of food, as food inflation increased to 40.53 percent in April 2024.