Electricity sector deregulation and consumer protection: assessing the imperatives of a competition: Assessing the imperatives of a competition law and competition regulatory authority in Nigeria

• Main Authors: Usman, Dahiru Jafaru, Yaacob, Nurli, A. Rahman, Aspallela
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: K Law (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/12927/1/14.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/12927/; http://www.umicg2014.com/

For about three decades now, electricity ceased to be provided as a public service across the globe. The liberalisation of the electricity industry started in Chile and later became a global trend. Developing countries have ventured into the reform agenda, and Nigeria is one of the new entrants. Literature abounds on the high risk of the electricity sector deregulation and the susceptibility of the deregulated electricity markets to manipulations and abuse by the electricity service providers.For better and fair market operations and the protection of consumers’ interest, the paper adopts the doctrinal research approach and assesses the imperatives of competition law and competition structures in the deregulated Nigerian electricity market.The paper found that the Nigerian experiment took off without the necessary consumer protection structures such as a competition law and competition regulatory agency leaving the electricity consumers at the mercy of the electricity service providers.The paper concludes that the country urgently needs a comprehensive competition regime to guarantee consumer benefits and to prevent substituting public monopoly with a private monopoly in the new Nigerian electricity market.