FG Mulls Another Increase In Electricity Tariffs

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The Federal Government has sent out alert of plans to further increase electricity tariffs over the next few months in the country.

Olu Verheijen, Special Adviser to the President On Energy, who disclosed the move by the government while speaking at the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said that it was in a bid to attract private investors and improve the finances of debt-burdened electricity distribution companies.

Verheijen also said that the government is working to transition to a cost-efficient but cost-reflective tariff, which will generate revenue for the sector while protecting the poor and vulnerable.

This followed approval by the federal government for a threefold increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification in 2024 which Nigerians are still grappling with particularly against the backdrop of the inability of the Electricity companies to meet up with the specified and allotted hours for the different bands.

The tariffs increase last year witnessed an increase from N66 to N225 kilowatt per hour indicating a more than 300 hundred percent increase.

The government however said that the planned increase will be balanced by subsidies for less-affluent electricity users, in an effort to mitigate the impact on low-income households. The development also followed Nigeria presenting a $32 billion plan to expand electricity connections by 2030 at the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

It is therefore surprising that the same government that said it is going to inject such funds, would in turn move to further increase tariffs ahead of the provisions of needed infrastructures for the sector.

The increase in electricity tariffs last year, led to many companies folding up just as some Federal Government institutions such as teaching and other hospitals and educational institutions were rendered comatose as they were unable to meet with payment of the new tariffs regime.

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