Genco in Nigeria will be free to generate and sell electricity directly to end users across the country with a very little interference from the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) , the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has declared.

The declaration, which was signed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola was made known to newsmen in Abuja on Friday.

Tagged as the ‘eligible customers’ regime, the declaration, NERC said in a statement on Friday in Abuja, was signed off by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

The statement announcing this was signed by NERC’s Head of Public Affairs, Dr. Usman Arabi. It said its declaration was legally backed by the provisions of Section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 (EPSRA), adding that it represented a major policy directive which now grants electricity consumers under this category the right to buy power directly from Gencos almost unhindered.

NERC stated that under the regime, Fashola signed off four categories of eligible customers to become operative in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

The first category of eligible customers, it noted, comprises a group of end-users registered with the NERC and whose consumption is not less than two megawatts (MW) and connected to a metered 11kV or 33kV delivery point on the distribution network. This group would however be subjected to a distribution use of system agreement for the delivery of electrical energy.