Legit.ng journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.
FCT, Abuja – The vice president of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Musiliu Oseni, has explained the reasons behind the increase in electricity tariff for Band A customers.
The increase, which was announced by NERC on Wednesday, will see customers pay ₦225 kilowatts per hour, up from the current ₦66.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Oseni explained that the Commission is empowered by its Act to ensure that the licenses operating efficiently are allowed to recover sufficient revenue for the capital invested, for the operational cost as well as having a return for the investment they have made.
He however noted that the increase is to enable
Oseni further said: “What informed the decision actually apart from the position of the Act is in the sense that if you look at December 2023 there was an improvement to the quality of service to January but from January up to date, there was a dip in generation availability.
“What caused that was because there was no review of tariff. The DisCos cannot be mandated to pay for what they have not been allowed to charge and in that case, the payment to generation companies has significantly dipped which affects their ability to maintain their machine and also to pay for gas.
“And if they are not able to pay for gas definitely, they won’t be able to generate not minding the fact that they also need money to maintain their machines.
“So, we are at a point where it is clearly that if nothing is done to ensure that tariff is reviewed so that the market can be relatively liquid the quality of supply won’t improve.”
Source: Legit.ng
