The manufacturing sector in Nigeria is facing a serious challenges  and are in a big mess of escalating costs of energy, and other binding constraints, driving up production and logistics costs there by putting  the sector on the verge of collapse.

Manufacturers overtime have raised the alarm over the damaging impact of the rising cost of energy, which has seen pump price of petrol risen by about 430 percent and electricity tariff up by 212 percent for ‘Band A’ consumers over the past one year.

On April 3, NERC approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification. The commission said customers under the category, who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, would begin to pay N225 per Kilowatt-hour (kWh) up from N66/kWh, but later reduced it to N209/kWh.

MAN had labelled the hike in power tariff as detrimental to economic growth and in its quest for survival, instituted a legal action at the Federal High Court in Lagos against the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and joined the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) as respondents to challenge the implementation of electricity tariff hike.

The manufacturers sought four reliefs: that due process stated in the Act for the review was not fulfilled before the DisCos applied to NERC for the tariff review on 31 July 2023; and that regulatory requirements for tariff reviews were not followed before NERC issued the Supplementary Order of 3 April 2024 and the subsequently reviewed rate of 6 May 2024.

MAN also held that placing the burden of the tariff increase on only Band “A” feeders and leaving out other bands amounted to discrimination against such consumers; and that the defendants must comply with administrative procedures for tariff review before rightfully implementing the April and May Supplementary Orders.

NERC however objected to the suit, stating that MAN’s case constitutes an abuse of court processes, being hasty and prematurely filed without following due process of the law.

The manufacturers’ efforts to reverse the electricity tariff to its previous price, was put to shambles  by the court struck out the case.