There will be no going back on the plan to increase electricity tariff by over 45 percent, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed.
The Minister made this known on Tuesday while briefing members of the Senate Committees on Labour and Power during a public hearing on the new electricity tariff.
Fashola noted that a reversal of the planned tariff hike will cost Nigeria over N575 billion, saying the new tariff was necessary for the survival of the market.
He said, “One of the reasons why the tariff had to go up was that a major component, a significant number of our power plant depends on gas and out of about 26 power plants that we have only about three are hydro.”
“We were heavily dependent on gas, people were exporting gas because gas was selling outside the country at four dollars and it was selling for domestic use at one dollar.”
Fashola further said that Nigeria was one of the countries with the lowest electricity tariff despite the price hike.
“Enabling laws for the process were passed by the National Assembly in 2005, the process completed by the Executive in 2013: if the process was bad, where was oversight?’’ he asked.
The Minister pleaded with Nigerians and the lawmakers to be patient with government and investors in the power sector, noting that three years was a short time to judge.
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