A consumer rights group in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Utilities Consumers’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, has kicked against the proposed electricity tariff hike scheduled to commence on July 1, this year, amidst the recent removal of fuel subsidies.
The group argued that the hike in electricity tariffs was not a welcome development at a time when Nigerians were still battling with the removal of the petrol subsidy and its attendant effects.
“Distribution companies should make meters available to their customers without further delay if they want them to work.
“National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should open the meter market to every qualified investor to create competition that will bring the price of the meter down and make them affordable to consumers,’’ Mr Shadrack Akinbodunse, Principal Partner for Utilities Consumers’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, said as carried by the local online portal ‘supreme magazine.news’.
“If meters are available and affordable, the Discos will gear up their readiness to accept energy from TCN and do the needful to their customers.
“But now, the reversal is the case, as consumers now pay for darkness,” he said.
Akinbodunse called on the Discos to shoulder their responsibilities to the end-users because every new installation up to transformer replacement was being done by communities without a return on their investments from the Discos.
“We have a situation where customers are being asked to purchase new meters for replacement of obsolete, faulty and burned ones, which is not good for business,” he concluded.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com