Electricity for the rich: Discos introduce secret N60/kw tariff

THE Nigerian electricity industry may have secretly introduced a discriminatory tariff of N60 per kilowatts for the benefit of Nigerians who are able to afford it and living in exclusive areas.

This is as the sector announced that it lost an estimated N7,662,000,000 in seven days starting from March 17 to 23, 2017.

Findings by Tribune Online indicated that in some estates in Garki 2 and Lokogoma areas of Abuja, residents pay between N50 and N60 per kilowatts of electricity and have a guarantee of 24-hours of supply from Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).

Officially, a unit of electricity in most parts of Nigeria is N23 per unit.

A resident of one of the estates in Garki 2, Hauwa Yunana told our correspondent “I became very angry when I first moved into the estate and discovered the number of units that appeared on the metre after I loaded N5,000 worth of electricity.

“It was when I complained to my agent that he explained the situation to me. Right now, I can’t even remember the last time that I started my generator”, she explained.

It will be recalled that Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, had said early last year that electricity would soon become a matter of “willing seller, willing buyer” matter whereby electricity would be sold to customers who are ready to pay for it.

Also, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) also said some weeks ago that it had been rejecting power allocation from Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) because power was not being delivered to specific areas.

A Presidency source confided in this newspaper that “23 per unit of electricity is not sustainable and we must be ready to pay at least N50 if we are really desirous of having uninterrupted electricity in this country.”

According to the source, Federal Government has reneged on most of the promises it made to the power sector investors during the privatisation process like the payment of N300 billion subsidies.

“The Jonathan administration grudgingly approved N15 billion but nothing else has been approved or given since then,” our source disclosed.

The source, which pleaded anonymity, also confided that most electricity consumers will wait much longer before they will be provided with prepaid metres.

“Let me tell you, without estimated billing, all these companies in the power sector will just collapse,” he further explained while adding that even with existing 40 per cent equity in the 17 generating and transmission companies, Federal Government has failed to make any investment in the last four years.

In addition, government ministries, parastatals, agencies, military and paramilitary organisations have refused to pay for power for years with debts running into scores of billions.