Rahila Thomas is a preeminent authority on Nigeria’s power sector with over 20+ years of experience, in-depth knowledge of, and an impeccable professional network across, all aspects of the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) from generation, transmission and distribution to industry groups and government agencies. Since 2001 she has been at the forefront of the industry’s evolving structure, ownership, management, operations, performance and future. As head of Energy Market and Rates Consultants (EMRC) Limited in Nigeria and its predecessor firm – AF Mercados EMI, Rahila has directed, overseen and/or supported over 200 power sector projects, frequently concurrently, with a total value of over $11M having an economic impact in excess of $650M. She leads and manages an interdisciplinary and dynamic team of consultants and associates that provide transaction advisory, industry-wide power market analysis, financial and techno-economic due diligence, tariff design, policy, and regulatory support.
Since 2005 Rahila Thomas has built a wide and diverse professional network with key governmental, private sector and other stakeholders. Her expertise has served the Nigeria power sector in many ways.
She served as Lead Advisor to the Senate Committee in preparation of the Electricity Bill enacted in June 2023, decentralizing the electricity market. To support the Act’s implementation, she was appointed as Advisor to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), a model platform for State-level collaboration.
In recognition of her expertise, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in August 2023 nominated her to the Commercial and Transactions working group tasked with supporting NERC in the transition of NESI into a multi-tier regulatory regime, and in January 2024 she was appointed Chairperson of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company Administrative Board of Directors to salvage the failing distribution company.
She is the first female rising to that Board position in NESI. She has served as Technical Advisor to three consecutive Ministers of Power and was Special Assistant on Energy to Hon. Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission. She served as Technical Advisor to the Presidential Task Force on Power, supporting the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, preparation of the 2010 Power Sector Roadmap, and development of privatization processes. Rahila has also worked on projects funded by development agencies such USAID’s Power Africa/Nigeria Power Sector Program (NPSP), World Bank, AfDB, GIZ GmbH, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI).
Earlier in her career, Rahila was a core member of the Electric Power Team in the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) driving progress on power sector reform and actions with NEPP 2001, EPSRA 2005, the Market Rules, Grid Codes and Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO). She exudes proven experience as a power sector expert and strategist with a BSc in Business Administration, MSc in Energy Finance, and Galileo Master Certificate (GMC) on Renewable Energy Solutions, Management and Finance.