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The Nigeria Consumer Protection Network has urged the Federal Government to halt the planned increase in electricity tariff in the country, saying the development would cause untold hardship to most Nigerians
Kunle Olubiyo,the President of Nigeria Consumer Protection Network conveyed the displeasure of his group in a letter addresses to the chairman of Nigerian Electricity Commission(NERC),Engr.Sanusi Garba,and made available to PREMIUM NEWS
He said the timing of another increase in electricity tariff in Nigeria was ill advised and unacceptable to electricity consumers,adding that his group had expected that the regulator would have allowed the impact of January 2021 major tariff increase to settle down.
He disclosed that the last tariff adjustment,which he claimed translated to 120% – 200% increase,had discouraged Nigerians from using air conditioners ,
micro waves ,water heater and basic household equipment that are taken for granted in other climes .
According to him,the present state of the power sector and the planned increase in electricity tariff is the most embarrassing elitist conspiracy and a calculated attempts to give the present Muhammadu Buhari’s government a Bad name .
He said:”The question is, of what value is the last increase in the electricity tariff to Nigerians , end users of electricity and the Nigerian economy.The much celebrated
tariff reflective in most cases based on feedback nation wide,has spur poor quality of power supply and a glaringly undisputable celebrated decrease in efficient service delivery as against service reflective tariff embedded with a desired increased in services and increase in load generation ..
“In reality and sadly , the end results of the recent increase in electricity tariff in Nigeria has been a decline in improvement in load despatch ,low load wheeling ,low load utilization and persistently,it has been a case of fixatives and stereotypes blame game
between generation,transmission and
distribution sub sector of the Nigerian electricity grid value .
“The trajectory is no doubt heading to economic strangulation of the country and the citizenry.These elitist conspiracy is calculated to send all of us back to our villages if nothing urgently is done to halt the trajectory of these negative drift .The input used in arriving at the present electricity tariff in the first place,is fraudulent,padded,over bloated,self centered and skewed in favour of energy cartel.
“There are lots of proven embedded cost inefficiencies ,production inefficiencies ,over bloated cost of gas ,padded cost of market shortfalls and all manners of padded cost and tariff / price indexes that government need to clean up in order to reflate the Nigerian economy,constructively engage the productive energy of the citizenry .and mainstream the lofty ideals of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic sustainability growth which may become a mirage if the proposed extra ordinary review in electricity is not halted.
He said government needs to listen end users in line with Global Best Practices and as a way of deepening Nigerian Government disposition to governance indexes and inclusive and participatory open society.
He urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to consider urgent review of the entire power sector privatization exercise through mid term review of the power sector privatization hurriedly put together in the year 2013.
He also emphasized the need for government to close the gaps between official exchange rates and the parallel market resulting in huge debt burden and needless market shortfalls .
According to him,government should holistically address the 200% over bloated cost of Gas , since account for 85% of total daily grid sourced Electricity in Nigeria..
He said:”Gas is a major feedstock of Gas to Power Generation hence the need for Review of domestic gas obligation,overhaul of Joint Venture Agreements , Joint Venture Contracts , close gaps in governance and review of framework that constitutes impediments to markets competitiveness ..
“Government should review / Operationalized all the vesting contracts ,innovate Power Purchase Agreements ,Gas Supply Agreement ,break the monopoly of distribution licensees ,unbundle the Transmission of Nigeria.As it is now , the present arrangement is working at cross purposes with the original objectives of the privatization of the power sector in the year 2013 aimed at promoting competitive electricity market”.
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