The Federal Government has said it has no plans to significantly increase the tariffs paid for electricity in the nation, saying rather, Nigerians should expect an increase in the power sector’s efficiency.
This is in contrast to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC‘s Monday announcement that another tariff review for Nigeria’s 11 power distribution companies will hold in July, which added that the review is a development that might lead to a rise in the tariffs payable by electricity users.
Speaking in a statement released via his official Twitter Speaking in a statement released via his official Twitter handle, the Federal Minister of Power, Sale Mamman on Friday said there is no plan to significantly raise electricity tariffs across the country. He, however, said the NERC’s review is in accordance with Section 76 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005.
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“My Fellow Nigerians, There is NO plan to significantly raise Electricity Tariffs! Instead of significant hike in electricity tariff, Nigerians should expect an increase in efficiency in the sector to reduce tariffs while managing headwinds from foreign exchange and inflation”, the statement began.
“The review planned by @NERCNG is in accordance with Section 76 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005. The tariff for customers on service bands D & E (customers being served less than an average of 12hrs of supply per day over a period of one month) remains subsidized in line with the policy direction of the Federal Government. Section 76 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 provides clear guidelines for the periodic review of tariff (based on market data and submissions from licensees).” Read also: IEC And Eko Electricity DisCos Confirm Partial Collapse Of Their Grid
“The guidelines include the provision that the Commission shall give notice of activities related to tariff. The Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) per NERCs regulation obtains inputs from operators in the market every 6 months to perform minor reviews and a major review is required every 5 years. Thus, as in January a minor review will occur in June. Given the timing for the Extraordinary review has also elapsed, a review will occur for consideration in January 2021.”“The Buhari administration remains faithful to the adopted resolutions from the Joint FGN-NLC/TUC Technical Committee on Electricity Tariffs which makes recommendations for “NERC to conduct an extraordinary review of the MYTO to further review factors and align them with current current evolving realities. The reason this recommendation was posited by the Committee was to ensure that efficiencies could be derived from an extraordinary review to further reduce tariff.” Read also: “Am I Running A Factory? Una Dey Mad?”, Lilian Esoro Blows Hot After Getting Over N790,000 Electricity Bill
“Government is committed to increasing supplied energy to the grid through rapidexpansion of infrastructure through the various facilities for the sector either to the DISCOS under strict terms or to the Transmission Company of Nigeria. Furthermore, the National Mass Metering Program is on course to reduce losses. To date more than 500k meters have been delivered to DISCOs in phase 0 of the program in 5 months (this exceeds the progress done for the entire MAP scheme).”“We will eliminate the metering gap during the life of this administration. This administration is not unaware of the challenges that Nigerians face which is why govt has continued to subsidise the band D and E consumers to pre-Sept 2020 rates (55% of grid connected customers). Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, the statement ended.
There Is No Plan To Significantly Raise Electricity Tariffs – Power Minister Sale Mamman
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“The Buhari administration remains faithful to the adopted resolutions from the Joint FGN-NLC/TUC Technical Committee on Electricity Tariffs which makes recommendations for “NERC to conduct an extraordinary review of the MYTO to further review factors and align them with current current evolving realities. The reason this recommendation was posited by the Committee was to ensure that efficiencies could be derived from an extraordinary review to further reduce tariff.”
“We will eliminate the metering gap during the life of this administration. This administration is not unaware of the challenges that Nigerians face which is why govt has continued to subsidise the band D and E consumers to pre-Sept 2020 rates (55% of grid connected customers). Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, the statement ended.
