Electricity: FG Urges Calm Over Planned Tariff Rise

The federal government has appealed to electricity consumers to cooperate with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in the price review of electricity to be implemented in July.

In a statement from the ministry of power yesterday, the Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba, said the review is in compliance with the Electric Power Sector Reforms Act (EPSRA) 2005, which empowers NERC to ensure that the prices charged by licensees and operators are fair to consumers and are sufficient to allow the licensees to finance their activities and to allow for reasonable earnings for efficient operation.

He urged electricity consumers not to panic at the price review in July, saying it is a minor review that is aimed at bridging the gap in the cost of electricity purchased by the distribution companies from the Generation companies.

According to the statement, at various levels of policy discourse in the power sector reforms, the ministers of power, Engr. Mamman Sale and Mr Jedy-Agba had urged electricity consumers to be calm, saying no responsible government will deliberately exploit citizens, especially in the provision of social amenities like electrification and other relevant infrastructure. President Muhammadu Buhari had in September 2020 approved a minor review of the price of electricity, while the National Assembly in its resolution deferred the price review to the first quarter of 2021.

Recently, the lawmakers had invited the Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, as they called for the suspension of the July 2021 tariff hike. Garba had said the Generation Companies (GenCos) sell electricity to the Distribution Companies (DisCos) at a price and that the DisCos will certainly not sell to consumers at the same price.

He, however, noted that it is the responsibility of NERC to regulate the prices between GenCos and DisCos to ensure that the burden of price is not transferred to consumers and they are not exploited.