JUST IN: FG APPROVES ELECTRICITY SUBSIDY FOR HOSPITALS

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The federal government has granted a 50 percent subsidy for power used in hospitals across the country.

This came after Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu promised that the Federal Government would subsidise energy in hospitals and institutions, even if they were on Band-A feeders.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, said on Thursday that the Federal Government has approved a 50% electricity subsidy for public hospitals.

According to him, this gesture seeks to reduce the running costs for public hospitals and alleviate the impact on patients.

Alausa made the disclosure at the National Neo-Psychiatric Hospital in Barnawa, Kaduna, where he unveiled electronic health records and an alternative power supply source at the Lawal Jafaru Isah Emergency Complex, as well as a solarisation project at the dialysis unit that includes a solar-powered borehole.

Speaking recently in Ibadan, Adelabu stated that the government will not support private enterprises operating at these colleges and hospitals.

The minister stated that the government was aware that universities and hospitals were having difficulty paying their costs.

However, he stated that the Federal Government intends to meter all enterprises operating within each of the institutions in order to avoid providing subsidies to private businesses.

“We know they are development institutions, they are social institutions. But inside the health and educational institutions, private businesses are hiding under them. These people charge their customers commercially and they expect to be subsidised because they are located within the territories of these institutions.

“We said no, go and do a proper search and meter everybody. For the ones that are properly health and education-related, we are ready to subsidise them, even if they are on Band A. We are compiling our data, DisCos will collect a certain amount and the government will pay the balance. But we must get the data right so that we are not subsidising a private business that is charging its customers commercially. That will be an abnormal profit and it is unfair,” he stated.

After the Federal Government removed subsidies from customers categorised as Band A and upgraded their daily electricity supply to a minimum of 20 hours daily, universities and public hospitals cried out that their bills had skyrocketed.

Recently, the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital cried out over what they described as an outrageous electricity bill charged by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company for May.

The institutions said they were jointly presented with a bill of about N280m for May instead of the less than N100m they used to pay.

The Ministry of Power has yet to give details of the subsidy arrangement for the institutions.

The Minister of Power’s spokesman, Bolaji Tunji, promised to revert.