The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has announced plans to adjust electricity tariffs in a bid to address disparities in the current billing system as well as encourage investment in the power sector.
Adelabu, who gave this hint on Thursday at the public presentation of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Nigeria Integrated Resource Plan in Abuja, said the government was considering this option over the slow pace of migration to Band A customers, which he attributed to the reluctance of Distribution Companies to make the necessary investments.
Under the current structure, customers in Band B, who enjoy 18 to 17 hours of electricity supply, pay N63 per kilowatt-hour, while those in Band A, with only two hours more of supply, are charged N209 per kilowatt-hour.
Adelabu described this as unfair and stressed the need for a regularisation of the tariffs to create a more balanced and equitable pricing system.
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He clarified: “We will look at the tariff again. I am not saying that we’re going to increase the tariff before I am misquoted.
“We are going to look at it and see how we can improve upon our modest achievement of last year, not only to ensure that we grow the sector that we need but also to ensure that we can invest more in revamping all these dilapidated infrastructures.
“The migration to Band A should have been faster, but we found out that the DisCos refuse to invest. They have refused to invest in this sector.
“A lot of investment is required for us to achieve an accelerated migration of lower-band customers into Band A. It is taking a lot of time”, he added.
The minister said that in response to this, the government would restructure the tariff bands to bridge the current wide gap between them.
He expatiated: “The gap between the Band A tariffs and Bands B, C, D, and E is just too wide. We believe it’s not fair. It is not just, and we must be able to carry out some level of regularisation.”
While stressing that government is committed to reviewing the existing tariff structure, the minister pointed out that the planned review did not imply an imminent increase in rates.
