Nigerians may pay more for electricity as govt ‘regularise’ tariff
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu says government is planning to regularise electricity tariffs to balance the current tariff system.
Although he said that the regularisation would not translate to tariff hike, but it will be about a balanced and equitable pricing system to address disparities in the current billing system and encourage investment in the power sector.
The minister spoke at the ongoing public presentation of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Nigeria Integrated Resource Plan, on Thursday in Abuja.
On paper, customers on Band B enjoy 18 to 17 hours of electricity supply and pay N63 per kilowatt-hour while consumers in Band A, with only two hours more of supply, are charged N209 per kilowatt-hour, but in reality, the hours of supply is far less.
“We will look at the tariff again. I am not saying that we’re going to increase the tariff before I am misquoted.
“We are going to look at it and see how we can improve upon our modest achievement of last year, not only to ensure that we grow the sector that we need but also to ensure that we can invest more in revamping all these dilapidated infrastructures.
“The gap between the Band A tariffs and Bands B, C, D, and E is just too wide.
“We believe it’s not fair, it is not just, and we must be able to carry out some level of regularisation.”
