FG deducts ₦1.69bn from Abuja DisCo’s account for overbilling customers

The Federal Government has approved a deduction of ₦1.69 billion from the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC)’s total annual operating expenditure due to overbilling of consumers.

In a supplementary order issued in May 2025, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) stated that the penalty was imposed following AEDC’s failure to comply with the “order on non-compliance with capping of estimated bills”, as well as a review of additional data submitted by the company.

“The Commission has approved the deduction of N1.69Bn from the total annual OpEx of AEDC effective September 2024, being 10% of the overbilled amount by AEDC for the period covering May—September 2023,” the order stated.

The commission also announced the establishment of a Transmission Infrastructure Fund (TIF), which will finance critical transmission projects and innovative initiatives aimed at enhancing transmission service delivery within the power sector.

“The fund shall be centrally managed and can also be used to securitise vendor financing and other Public Private Partnership (‘PPP’) arrangements to fund,” the report noted.

Additionally, the order mandates that AEDC procure a minimum of 61 megawatts (MW) of embedded generation capacity—representing 10% of its 2024 load allocation. NERC explained that this requirement is intended to enhance supply reliability and ensure a consistent minimum service level under the Service-Based Tariff (SBT) framework.

“A minimum of 30MW (i.e., 50%) of the embedded generation capacity must be sourced from renewable energy sources,” the Commission specified.

NERC added that the required capacity can either be procured in bulk or distributed across AEDC’s entire franchise area.