Beancounter94:


In my (poor opinion) most African countries don't try to do what we do...give everyone, villager and city dweller power....thus overstretching their grid. (Cameroon still has some parts of the country that are not connected to any grid anywhere.)

Also, some African countries pay more per kwh of power than we do eg Ghana. (The subsidy they want to remove is supposed to cover the losses the DISCOS incur in selling power at a low price...but due to rising costs, it cannot adequately cover all losses)

Beancounter94:


In my (poor opinion) most African countries don't try to do what we do...give everyone, villager and city dweller power....thus overstretching their grid. (Cameroon still has some parts of the country that are not connected to any grid anywhere.)

Also, some African countries pay more per kwh of power than we do eg Ghana. (The subsidy they want to remove is supposed to cover the losses the DISCOS incur in selling power at a low price...but due to rising costs, it cannot adequately cover all losses)

Beancounter94:


Whereas if we keep subsidy...the power and petrol companies won't be able to make enough profit to make things better...plus no one would come and invest in things like power stations, and the refinereis.

The thing about business....if you don't make a profit...or are not sure of making a profit....you would end up not investing.

If you have Biafra or oodua....both nations would have to run without subsides, or they would be as indebted as Nigeria is. The more you spend on subsides, the more you strain your country's money to pay for the subsides as costs rise.

The GSM we have...there were no subsidies from the word go. People were buying sims at N10000 at the beginning. A v-mobile starter pack in 2002 cost N23000. My first ever SIM in 2004 cost N7000 (MTEL...and that was the cheapest then!) But thanks to no subsidies, the companies mande enough of a profit to build the GSM infrastructure that we have today...and that serves our internet and phones well well. And a SIM costs less than N1000 now.

The same can happen for our power and petrol sector. Yes, we go pay high. Yes things would be hard ...but with more investment and suchlike...prices will come down

We are not earning enough to pay the kind of subsides we had when people like Yaradua and GEJ were in power..and even back then subsides were creating a big dent in our economy to the point that GEJ wanted to get rid of them completely

jumper524:
The corruption going on in this country, even the common man is part of it.
Until we totally scrap all this subsidies, Nigerians would forever remain lazy and never wake up to realities.
Imagine if fuel subsidy was scraped?
The $300million dollar we spend monthly would be used to develop other sector and maybe the electricity sector would have been more stable hence less consumption of fuel.
More billionaires would build private refineries without political cabals but the truth is that if they should dare venture, they'll be definitely run at a loss..

jumper524:
The corruption going on in this country, even the common man is part of it.
Until we totally scrap all this subsidies, Nigerians would forever remain lazy and never wake up to realities.
Imagine if fuel subsidy was scraped?
The $300million dollar we spend monthly would be used to develop other sector and maybe the electricity sector would have been more stable hence less consumption of fuel.
More billionaires would build private refineries without political cabals but the truth is that if they should dare venture, they'll be definitely run at a loss..

Beancounter94:


Exactly

But for Nigerians, cheap cheap trumps everything else.

The fun part is that most people running businesses won't accept a subsidy regimen on their business. Their profits would fall

OgundeleTeju:
This post gladdens my heart,I have look forward to when subsidy will be removed from Electricity,Nice one �

okefranci:
The effort of this administration is to ensure that it continued to play critical role in the growth of the country’s social and economic well being.

TheRareGem1:
The last administration made a very wrong move, such move is frustrating this Administration's effort in the energy sector, you don't sell energy to incompetence fellows just because they are your friends, those ones handled it the way they like, liquidated Skye Bank in the process and here we are, the FG is rectifying these problems.

Though electricity has improved compared to how it was in the last 16 years, the foresightedness of our leader to bringing solar especially for the people who are not connected to national grid is a good initiative. The caping regulation signed by Mr. P too is superb.



Prof. Osinbajo, who was represented by the Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure, Engr. Ahmad Zakari, noted that government would be investing over $3 billion in the coming years to improve transmission and distribution infrastructure across the country.

Beancounter94:


Whereas if we keep subsidy...the power and petrol companies won't be able to make enough profit to make things better...plus no one would come and invest in things like power stations, and the refinereis.

The thing about business....if you don't make a profit...or are not sure of making a profit....you would end up not investing.

If you have Biafra or oodua....both nations would have to run without subsides, or they would be as indebted as Nigeria is. The more you spend on subsides, the more you strain your country's money to pay for the subsides as costs rise.

The GSM we have...there were no subsidies from the word go. People were buying sims at N10000 at the beginning. A v-mobile starter pack in 2002 cost N23000. My first ever SIM in 2004 cost N7000 (MTEL...and that was the cheapest then!) But thanks to no subsidies, the companies mande enough of a profit to build the GSM infrastructure that we have today...and that serves our internet and phones well well. And a SIM costs less than N1000 now.

The same can happen for our power and petrol sector. Yes, we go pay high. Yes things would be hard ...but with more investment and suchlike...prices will come down

We are not earning enough to pay the kind of subsides we had when people like Yaradua and GEJ were in power..and even back then subsides were creating a big dent in our economy to the point that GEJ wanted to get rid of them completely

osuofia2:
Buahri is really working hard to take Nigeria to the next level. The love he has for this country is so much that atimes i ask my self why the so much love to people that doesn't regards him. Even with the hate from the Afonja land to Flattino kingdom baba Buhari is unshaking

Beancounter94:


And in response , see here

Good morning to you too.

PataAlhajaKeji:
No sane country subsidizes electricity and fuel. They are best left in the hands of the private sector in their entirety.

If you can not afford them, relocate to your village and start a farm.

TheRareGem1:


Even with the incompetence by those gej admin sold the sector to, this admin is still able to improve power across the nation, I remember how we use to suffer for light in those days, if we are lucky, five minutes light out of 24 hours.

Beancounter94:


One thing I don't like about Nigerians, once they lose the argument, they go and abuse and abuse.

Anyway, read the paper I linked upthread.

Good afternoon. I thought we were noest in a abuse match. And yet, you abused me. I did not abuse you, and I see no reason why you should do so to me.

P.S i Have paid power bills...from estimated billing to meter currently;.

quentin06:


My apologies, but what you said about Nigerians under paying is incorrect, elec tariff has been increased severally by this administration, Discos have been getting subventions since 2014 from the CBN, in effect they re being subsidized.
If you sell of an asset, you re not supposed to be responsible for its upkeep.
The Discos IMO have not done enough to justify their existence, its better the privatization be reversed, cos govt is broke.
The stoppage of forex to BDC is a pointer, that the govt is going broke.
Increasing elec tariff for impoverished citizens won't improve the economy.

daddytime:
Opari o

At some point, even the DISCOS and GENCOS go just fold up.

Na who chop belleful go dey reason light matter or get money to take pay outrageous bills.

To even run on generator to self-generate light sef go be war.hope u know mc oloumo makes a million in a week collecting 100 in Lagos , which stupid subsidy are they talking about with huge light bills we pay in Nigeria, this guy's have no solution to Nigeria problem

To the poster before me:

The one thing picked from your comment is the "maybe" conditional statement.

You can free up every subsidy fund as much as you can but trust me, those freed up fund will still end up in one man's coffers as usual.

Our problem big pass just subsidy.

jumper524:
The corruption going on in this country, even the common man is part of it.
Until we totally scrap all this subsidies, Nigerians would forever remain lazy and never wake up to realities.
Imagine if fuel subsidy was scraped?
The $300million dollar we spend monthly would be used to develop other sector and maybe the electricity sector would have been more stable hence less consumption of fuel.
More billionaires would build private refineries without political cabals but the truth is that if they should dare venture, they'll be definitely run at a loss..

jumper524:
The corruption going on in this country, even the common man is part of it.
Until we totally scrap all this subsidies, Nigerians would forever remain lazy and never wake up to realities.
Imagine if fuel subsidy was scraped?
The $300million dollar we spend monthly would be used to develop other sector and maybe the electricity sector would have been more stable hence less consumption of fuel.
More billionaires would build private refineries without political cabals but the truth is that if they should dare venture, they'll be definitely run at a loss..

TheRareGem1:
The last administration made a very wrong move, such move is frustrating this Administration's effort in the energy sector, you don't sell energy to incompetence fellows just because they are your friends, those ones handled it the way they like, liquidated Skye Bank in the process and here we are, the FG is rectifying these problems.

Though electricity has improved compared to how it was in the last 16 years, the foresightedness of our leader to bringing solar especially for the people who are not connected to national grid is a good initiative. The caping regulation signed by Mr. P too is superb.

Prof. Osinbajo, who was represented by the Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure, Engr. Ahmad Zakari, noted that government would be investing over $3 billion in the coming years to improve transmission and distribution infrastructure across the country.

Beancounter94:


1Apology accepted

2.The thing about tariff increases is that it is government doing the increase, not the DISCOS themselves....plus the subventions are meant to cover any losses they get from not charging cost reflective tarrifs....and anyway CBN pays half, the other half is paid by lending agencies and some other countries.

When government controls prices, they keep prices below the production cost well well. Or else, we would be paying N100 or more per kwh since 2014, and by now everyone and his daughter would be doing serious re-enactment of the Aba riots of 1929....

Summary...government keeps tarrifs below the actual cost of production, and CBN along with lending agencies pays a fixed subvention which in principle covers the resulting losses...in practice it doesn't (GENCOS have to buy gas in dollars...not in naira)

3.Reversing the privatization has been considered by this government some two years ago. And the Minsiter of Justice told them that they could be sued to gehenna and back by the angry investors for reversing the thing....in other words, government would have to pay lots of cash to reverse privatization. No thanks.

(Let's not even talk about how it would scare off investors...Venezuela and Zimbabwe went a nationalizating...and while it was good for a while, many investors got scared off)

4.And the fact is, we are not earning enough dollars from oil. Between 2010-14 oil was above $91 and as high as $130. Since Buhari took over, oil has been as high as $80 and as low as $20. Then we need oil at $133 per barrel to even earn a decent sum of money to live without borrowing. The surprise is that government is still selling to BCD'S (up till today I thought they had stopped since!)

zanshi:



My take on all of these is that, the DISCO's don't want to put their money where their mouth is. If you bought a privatized power generating licensece or company from the goverment, you have to be able to make long term investment to gurantee stability, trust and reliabilty from subscribers. They probably thought this was some rent seeking arrangement where the monies gotten from subscribers would generate them profit and in turn help them make some smoke screen investment here and there. Also, electricity subscribers shouldn't be pushed to the wall with the excuse of increased tarrifs every year. Since 2015 when this government resumed office, there has been an increase in cost of kw/h. While i understand that this increases have to reflect operating cost, they also have to be reflective on year on year investment on the side of the DISCOS. To summarise, Nigerians should not be taken for granted.