The Federal Government has said that there will
be no going back on the 45 per cent increase in
electricity tariff, adding that a reversal will cost
over N575 billion.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing,
Babatunde Fashola, made the statement in Abuja
on Tuesday when he briefed the Senate
Committees on Labour and Power during a public
hearing on the new electricity tariff.
The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) in January announced a 45 per cent
increment in electricity tariff.
The Senate, after considering a motion at plenary
in January, directed that the tariff be reversed to
enable it conclude hearing on the case.
However, the minister explained that the new
tariff could not be reversed as it was necessary for
the market to survive.
He said a number of indices, such as borrowing
rate for investors, exchange rate , availability and
cost of gas, among others also contributed to the
hike.
“One of the reasons why the tariff had to go up
was that a major component, a significant
number of our power plant depends on gas and
out of about 26 power plants that we have only
about three are hydro.
“We were heavily dependent on gas, people were
exporting gas because gas was selling outside the
country at four dollars and it was selling for
domestic use at one dollar,” he said.
The minister said even with the recent hike in
electricity tariff, Nigeria was still among countries
with the lowest electricity tariffs in Africa and the
world.
Mr. Fashola added that since 2005 when the
power privatization process started till 2013 when
it was concluded, every segment of government
was involved and would share the blame if there
was any failure.
“Enabling laws for the process were passed by
the National Assembly in 2005 , the process
completed by the Executive in 2013: if the
process was bad, where was oversight?’’ he
asked.
Mr. Fashola, however, pleaded with the
lawmakers and Nigerians to be more patient with
the government and investors on the process,
saying three years was not enough to judge its
success or failure.
Explaining the non-implementation of the
directive by Senate to reverse the tariff, Anthony
Akah, Acting Chairman, NERC, said that the
directive would have created avoidable setbacks
in the sector.
He said if the directive was implemented, a
market gap of about N575 billion would have
been created which would have compounded the
initial market gap of N187 billion the take-off tariff
put on investors.
He said that NERC was also hindered by a court
order, obtained by six generating and distribution
companies.
He said that the commission could also not easily
reverse the tariff as the process was in
compliance with section 76 ( of the law guiding
the operations of the commission.
But the joint committee insisted that it was
unacceptable for Nigerians to be paying so much
but have limited power supply.
The committee adjourned the public hearing to
Wednesday.

onatisi:
https://www.nairaland.com/2189424/provide-stable-power-eight-months

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on Sunday evening boasted that he could provide uninterrupted power supply to Lagos residents between six and eight months