“It certainly means that there may be higher
costs, but I don’t think that an option of not
having power is really what we want. The real
issue of course is that at the end of the day,
some of the cost goes to the consumer, but a
cost reflective tariff is an absolute necessity,
otherwise, privatization and all of that simply
doesn’t make sense.”
The above words by Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo recently gave credence to
government’s body language for an upward
review of electricity tariff as a panacea for
increased investment by power sector
investors, and for sustainable power supply.
The Vice President, who spoke at the Annual
General Meeting of the Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria (MAN), in Lagos was
emphatic in asking Nigerians to prepare to pay
more for electricity.
He said: “One aspect of the problem that I
want to speak about, because this also affects
manufacturing, is the whole idea of the tariffs.
Of course the president of MAN just said that
we have one of the most expensive electricity
in the world. Now, the truth of the matter is
that at this point, if we wanted to have a cost
effective tariff, the only way is to service that
core value chain, the only way is to ensure
that we are paying and compensating the
value chain-from generation down to
distribution-a cost effective tariff.
“You cannot have that cost effective tariff
without some pay. At the moment, (when you
compare) how much it costs to produce
power, and the amount of power that is
generated, the losses on account of
distribution are significant. In some cases you
have up to 40% losses in distribution, and of
course it is the Discos that have to take that
burden.
“The Gencos (generating companies) are
producing power, but they expect to be paid
for all the power that they produce. Now, if
40% of this is lost, it means the Discos cannot
collect 40%, but they have to pay for it
somehow. So government has to come in and
play some kind of role in order to ensure that
the whole value chain is paid for.”
Osibanjo went on: “But the most important
thing is that the cost of power is reflective of
costs that have to be borrowed at every stage
of the value chain and today the cost of
power, if it’s going to be reflective in any way
is simply what it is. It will be very difficult
indeed, except if we are going introduce yet
another subsidy and by the way, a fair amount
of that goes on already in the way that
government supports the Gencos and the
Discos.
“But I think that we must be ready to accept
that for a while, until things stabilize
somewhat, tariffs cannot remain at the levels
at which they are today, they cannot remain at
that level, and that just simply is the truth of
the matter.”
Indeed, the nation’s eleven distribution
companies have sent proposals to the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC),
demanding an increase in the tariff currently
paid by electricity consumers.
Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi
seems to have given a nod to the need for
tariff increase, noting that it would guarantee
greater supply.
The tariffs, he noted, should take effect in
November 12.
He gave further explanation: ‘’From what the
power distribution companies (DISCOs) have
submitted to the Commission, there is range of
tariffs for consumers of electricity. In few
DISCOs, consumers would see slight increase
in tariffs of between 20 per cent to 30 per
cent, while it would be higher by 40 per cent
there about. The charging of tarrifs would be
based on the cost profile of the Discos, the
number of customers available to them and
the quantity of power available to them.’’
He went on to justify the planned increase
recently. His words: “We are introducing new
electricity tariffs in November 2015 in order to
capture the realities that the Discos are
bringing to the sector. The realities include
debts owed the Discos, the increase in the
price of gas, rising cost of financing
infrastructure used by both the power
distribution and generation companies. We
are not changing the scientifi
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/10/outrage-as-discos-insist-on-increased-tariff-before-improved-supply/

Oil price is falling everyday so why the need for subsidy? Stop fuel subsidy and use the money to subsidize electricity tariff which will be beneficial to us all.

Nigerians are really suffering at this time so why increase our expenses with electricity tariff

Service first. #showmeyoursishowyoumine

This is bad news. Arrant nonsense. This still doesn't guarantee improved supply. Was there improvement when they increased from #4 per unit to bt #12 per unit? Nd subsequently, was there also any improvement when they increased from tht amount to #16.11 per unit? Enough of this deception and undue hrdship being forced on the populace. This is not the change we voted for. Let d DISCOs find way of blocking their losses.

So I heard that VP Osinbjo said they are working on reducing fuel prices. So is that d game? Increase electricity bill and reduce fuel price? And later, fuel price willl increase again and electricity charges will NEVER ever reduce.

Now, thats the definition of One Chance

mrsmith11:
Oil price is falling everyday so why the need for subsidy? Stop fuel subsidy and use the money to subsidize electricity tariff which will be beneficial to us all.

Nigerians are really suffering at this time so why increase our expenses with electricity tariff

Remove one subsidy for another subsidy? I do not support that or see any wisdom in that, it is very short sighted and myopic. Removing subsidy and using the money to develop infrastructure or improve on the building of more power plants makes much better sense. Nigerians should chill out with this whole subsidy thing, subsidy is not meant to be a permanent situation. Nigeria is poor and has limited finances so you need to prioritise. You can't be asking for everything to be susbsidised for you and asking for magical transformation of infrastructure as well, the money has to come from somewhere . . . . . . .

Who is disco?

SkyBlue1:


Remove one subsidy for another subsidy? I do not support that or see any wisdom in that, it is very short sighted and myopic. Removing subsidy and using the money to develop infrastructure or improve on the building of more power plants makes much better sense. Nigerians should chill out with this whole subsidy thing, subsidy is not meant to be a permanent situation. Nigeria is poor and has limited finances so you need to prioritise. You can't be asking for everything to be susbsidised for you and asking for magical transformation of infrastructure as well, the money has to come from somewhere . . . . . . .

Increase in tariff to equate increase in distribution will take more money from the pocket of the people and which they don't have due to high unemployment,inflation and whatever.

Government should invest heavily in power where there be considerable supply of power which will directly boost the economy then you can collect the money through increase in the tariff