The Federal Government and the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) have lately been trading blames on who ordered the July 1, enforcement of increment in electricity tariff on end-users. The association argued that the Federal Government and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved the new tariffs, yet the NERC in a letter directed them not to mention the FG and the regulators in the notification to customers on the takeoff of the new tariffs.
Before now, the increment on electricity tariff have been a subject of debate for a long time, but for the Buhari-led Administration to deem it fit to approve upward review of the tariff at a time when the economic productivity is low in the informal sector that make up 65 percent of the economy of Nigeria is rather unfortunate.
What is even more exasperating about the increment is that there is no justifiable reason for the increment on the end-users. Nigerians have been made to pay for electricity supply that is below par over the years. Since the privatization of the power sector, no meaningful change has happened to the sector with regards to power supply to Nigerians. For every part of the country, electricity has remained epileptic, if it is even supplied.
A directive issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in March for the postponement of any electricity tariff increment stated that “there shall be no increase in tariff of end-use customers on April 1, 2020. Performance Improvement Plan will form the basis for future tariff review. The Minster of Power, Saleh Mamman, also corroborated NERC in April, when he said there will not be any increment in tariff after the three month unless there is service improvement by the DisCos.
Nigerians have also clamoured for prepaid meters to justify payment for electricity supplied and consumed but the government and DisCos have continued to play Ping-Pong with the matter. A large chunk of electricity consumers are not metered.
IMPACT NEWS submits that the tariff increment is not only untimely and ill-conceived, it should rather not be in the picture. Governance is meant to protect the interest of the masses, not burden them with unjustifiable taxes and levies.
We advise the government to as a matter of priority ensure that electricity generation in the country is improved to the satisfaction of Nigerians before any motion of increment is conceived. We also call on all Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), labour unions and Nigerians to jointly stand against any form of increment now or in the future if there is no visible improvement in electricity supply across the country.
