The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has successfully transferred electricity market regulatory oversight to 15 States.
NERC disclosed in a Public Notice that under the Electricity Act 2023, 15 states have transitioned to regulating their own electricity markets.
The Commission disclosed that their State Electricity Regulators (SERs) are now responsible for driving local market growth, investments and ensuring robust customer protection.
It gave the names of the states have successfully transitioned to include Enugu — 22 Oct 2024, Ekiti — 22 Oct 2024, Ondo — 23 Oct 2024, Imo — 31 Dec 2024, Oyo — 5 Feb 2025, Edo — 20 Feb 2025, Kogi — 12 Mar 2025.
Others are Lagos — 4 June 2025, Ogun — 23 June 2025, Niger — 9 July 2025, Plateau — 12 Sep 2025, Abia — 24 Dec 2025, Nasarawa — 3 Feb 2026, Anambra — 1 Jan 2026 and Bayelsa — 20 Feb 2026.
Recall that the electricity market in Nigeria was previously centralised, before the presidential assent to the amendment of relevant portions of the Nigerian Constitution in March 17, 2023.
The amendment granted legislative autonomy to federating states by empowering the sub-national governments to legislate on the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity within respective states.
Although the Commission retained the role as a central regulator with regulatory oversight on the inter-state/ international generation, transmission, supply, trading and system operations.
The EA 2023 mandated any state that intends to establish and regulate intrastate electricity markets to deliver a formal notification of its processes and requested NERC to transfer regulatory authority over electricity operations in the state to the State Regulator.
