The Federal Government of Nigeria has ordered the country’s electricity regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to suspend the implementation of the nationwide electricity tariff hike.
According to PUNCH, a local portal, the West African nation’s Minister for Power, Sale Mamman, directed the commission to revert to the December 2020 power tariff.
The portal also quoted the Minister as saying that the government was currently subsidising 55 percent of on-grid consumers in selected bands.
Mr. Mamman further noted that the government never hiked tariff by 50 percent, as erroneously reported by some sections of the media.
“To promote a constructive conclusion of the dialogue with the labour centres, through the joint ad-hoc committee, I have directed NERC to inform all Distribution Companies (DISCOS) that they should revert to the tariffs that were applicable in December 2020 until the end of January 2021, when the Federal Government/labour committee work will be concluded,” Mr. Mamman stated.
He added: “This will allow for the outcome of all resolutions from the committee to be implemented together.”
The Minister said the government did not raise tariff by 50 percent, rather it had been subsidising about 55 percent of low income power users.
NERC’s electricity tariff hike was met with widespread criticism by the consuming public.
Adetayo Adegbemle, Executive Director for PowerUp Initiative For Electricity Rights, minced no words, describing it as pure wickedness.
“We are not doing any press statement on this tariff increment. We have been making it all the time Nigerians now need to own their own fight…but this tariff increase is wickedness,’’ he said on twitter as sighted by energynewsafrica.com.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com