Despite being classified as premium customers, many households and businesses across Nigeria are groaning under worsening power shortages, The Guardian has gathered.
  
While Band A customers are entitled to a minimum of 20 hours of electricity daily, and Band B customers to about 16 hours, residents in several parts of Lagos, Osun, and Kwara states so classified said they are not receiving supply anywhere near the benchmarks.
  
In Lagos, the situation is varied but troubling. In Egbeda, a compound with mixed band classifications has one tenant on Band A, while the others are in Band B.
  
Yet, all receive the same erratic supply, The Guardian gathered.
 
Residents of Igando, largely under Bands B and C, report even worse conditions.    
  
“Sometimes we go days without any power, and when it comes, it’s less than four hours,” said Bolanle Ayorinde, a fashion designer in the area.
  
On Governor’s Road in Ikotun, several small business owners said they have been without electricity for days, with no communication or timetable from their distribution company (DisCo).
 
“This area was not like this two years ago. It is hard to survive, we are running into debts, fuelling the generators is costly, and we do not know if the fish in the freezer will get spoilt,” said Ifeoluwa Adesanya, who runs a frozen food store in the area.
 
In Osun State, residents of Tiwadayo Estate and the Bolanle area share similar concerns. At Agunbelewo, a Band A community in Osogbo, the promised 20-hour daily supply remains a myth.
 
A resident in the area, Ahmed Olatunde, said they often receive electricity for five to six hours during the day, and sometimes the same at night.
 
The situation in Kwara is even more critical. In Sango, Ilorin, residents say they have been in darkness for two consecutive weeks.
  
A resident who simply gave his name as Naim said the supply in that area is nothing to write home about, as resorting to petrol generators isn’t sustainable either.
 
Lawyer and Executive Coordinator of NEPA WAHALA NG, Emeka Ojoko, said the methodology behind band migration lacks credibility and consumer validation. He observed that the statistics DisCos use to justify band upgrades are rarely verified by NERC through independent or transparent means, leaving end-users at a disadvantage.

Recounting a recent case at a NERC Forum, Ojoko described how residents under the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) presented evidence of shortfalls in power supply under Band A, information sourced directly from the DisCo’s website, yet the forum failed to direct a reclassification or billing adjustment, insisting only the regulator could authorise such action.    
  
This, he said, undermined consumer confidence in the redress system.
  
“They produced a printout from PHED’s website showing that for April 2025, PHED only supplied 20 hours for just nine days. Ordinarily, the Forum ought to have ruled that the feeder be migrated to a lower band and the customers’ accounts reconciled in line with the lower band. But this was not done.”
  
He warned that the credibility crisis in the power sector could fuel widespread disillusionment, prompting more customers to default on bills, resort to energy theft, or abandon the grid for alternatives like solar power.    
 
Ojoko noted that with wealthier customers and industries increasingly exploring off-grid options, the sustainability of the national electricity market could be at risk.
 
Infrastructure expert, Joseph Tsavsar, described regulatory oversight as poor and inconsistent, lacking the capacity and independence needed to manage the sector effectively. He argued that segmentation of supply into bands is impractical and unimplementable, given the chronic under-supply of power.
   
Tsavsar said the approach contradicts basic principles, especially where customers served by the same feeder are split across bands.
 
“The regulator lacks the capacity and independence to regulate the sector. Its inconsistency in regulations has rather created more problems. It lacks data and capacity to properly regulate. There is no adequate power supply to the distribution companies to meet consumer demand, so why segment supply? The only option is to ration the little they have, as was the practice during NEPA days,” he said.
 
National Coordinator of the All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum (AECPF), Adeola Samuel-Ilori, called the entire service-based tariff regime introduced in 2020 “a fraudulent contraption.” He criticised the approval of different tariffs for Band A customers without proper metering or enforcement, blaming DisCos for prioritising profit over service.
 
According to Samuel-Ilori, the only viable solution is metering all customers, ensuring they pay only for power actuallysupplied. He cited Section 114 of the Electricity Act, urging NERC to compel DisCos to meter all consumers or risk licence revocation. He stressed that this requires political will more than new laws.

He also highlighted the broader economic consequences of the crisis, noting that over 600 manufacturing companies have left the national grid, worsening unemployment, inflation and economic instability. Many small businesses and artisans have shut down or cannot break even due to erratic supply and punitive tariffs.
   
On the risk of sector collapse, Samuel-Ilori warned that many DisCos are bankrupt, with assets under government receivership. He described the situation as a ticking time bomb, intensified by repeated tariff hikes without improved supply, questionable billing practices, and systemic failures that could provoke public unrest.

He called for an urgent emergency declaration in the power sector to avert full collapse, pointing to the unfulfilled Siemens tripartite agreement and persistent grid collapses as evidence of the worsening crisis.