Pascal Arogorn Ibe
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, an engineer, has dismissed claims of a looming major hike in electricity tariff in the country, saying there is no plan to significantly raise it.
In a statement in Abuja, the minister noted that instead of a significant hike in electricity tariff, Nigerians should expect an increase in efficiency of the power sector to reduce tariffs, while managing headwinds from foreign exchange and inflation.
The clarification came amidst reports of possible major increase in the price of electricity.
Mamman explained that the order issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on April 26, announcing tariff reviews, was a routine procedure for the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) done every six months.
According to him, “The tariff for customers on service bands D & E (customers being served less than an average of 12 hours of supply per day over a period of one month) remains subsidised in line with the policy direction of the federal government”.
Mamman said the Buhari administration remained faithful to the adopted resolutions from the Joint ‘FGN-NLC/TUC Technical Committee on Electricity Tariffs’ which recommended for “NERC to conduct an extraordinary review of the MYTO to further review factors and align them with current evolving realities.”
He said the government was committed to increasing supplied energy to the grid through rapid expansion of infrastructure through the various facilities for the sector, either to the DisCos under strict terms or to the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
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