ELECTRICITY TARIFF HIKE: ANY REVERSAL WILL DERAIL FG'S REFORM PLANS - POWER MINISTTER

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The President Bola Tinubu administration’s aim for reforming the power sector will be derailed, according to Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, if the country’s Band A customers’ energy pricing hike is reversed.

Following the Federal Executive Council (EFC) meeting at the Aso Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, Adelabu gave a speech.

His remarks came after Organized Labor staged a statewide protest on Monday outside the offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and distribution businesses.

NERC increased the price of electricity on April 3, 2024, for those who receive 20 hours of power per day. Clients in this group are referred to as belonging to Band A. Given the timing of the tariff increases and the current hardships in the country, many Nigerians have harshly criticized the increase, which saw users pay N225 kilowatts per hour instead of the existing N66.

In response to the fury, NERC requested that discos lower the electricity tariff rate for Band A consumers by 8.1%. However, the outcry remained, with many Nigerians asking that the tariff hike be completely reversed and rejecting the reduction.

The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) subsequently picketed NERC offices and discos on Monday to press home their demands.

When asked to respond to the position of the Organised Labour, the power minister said, “The first question was about the recent Labour unions’ peaceful protest with regards to the recently increased tariffs for Band A customers in Nigeria’s electricity supply industry. Let me first make it abundantly clear that we are in democracy so there are fundamental human rights. I cannot deny people their rights.

“It’s the right of the Labour to protest peacefully and to come up with their demands, from the perspective they saw what we did. It is clearly allowed, it is legitimate and it is understandable. So we cannot stop them from organising a peaceful protest or laying down their demands. Let me make that clear. President Bola Tinubu’s administration is also a listening government.

“We have heard the demands, we’re going to look at it, we’ll make further engagements and I believe we’re going to reach a peaceful resolution with the Labour because no government can succeed without the cooperation, collaboration and partnership with the Labour unions. So, we welcome the peaceful protest and I’m happy that it was not a violent protest. They’ve made their positions known and government has taken in their demands and we’re looking at it.

“But one thing that I want to state here is from the statistics of those affected by the hike in tariff, the people on the road yesterday (on Monday), who embarked on the peaceful protests, more than 95% of them are not affected by the increase in the tariff of electricity. They still enjoy almost 70% government subsidy in the tariff they pay because the average costs of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity is not less than N180 today.

“A lot of them are paying below N60 so they still enjoy government’s subsidy. So when they say we should reverse the recently increased tariff, sincerely it’s not affecting them. That’s one position.

“My appeal again is that they should please not derail or distract our transformation plan for the industry. We have a clearly documented reform roadmap to take us to our desired destination, where we’re going to have reliable, functional, cost-effective and affordable electricity in Nigeria. It cannot be achieved overnight because this is a decay of almost 60 years, which we are trying to correct.

“Nobody promised us or assured us that the road will be smooth. We knew it’s going to be rough, but we must weather the storm, which is going to be temporary. It’s a lot of sacrifice from everybody; from the government’s side, from the people’s side, from the private sector side. So we must bear this sacrifice for us to have a permanent gain.

“I don’t want us to go back to the situation we were in February and March, where we had very low generation. We all felt the impact of this whereby electricity supply was very low and every household, every company, every institution, felt it. From the little reform that we’ve embarked upon since the beginning April, we have seen the impact that electricity has improved and it can only get better.

“So I’m appealing to everybody that one should not toy with this before that we have embarked upon, we are aiming somewhere and we will achieve it.”