Posted on: 05:05 Tue, 09 Feb 2016



Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has appealed to
Nigerians to bear the pains of the new
electricity tariff hike, describing it as painful pill
they must swallow in the interest of the
country.

“I understand that people who have been
disappointed over a long time will feel the sense
of concern that again tariff has gone up.

But the truth is that this tariff ought to have been
there from day one, and I don’t know why
government of yesterday was not courageous
enough to tell us this was the tariff.

“This is why you have this MYTO (Multi-Year-
Tariff-Order) every two years. So they (past
governments) have given the impression that
the price of power will increase every two
years. What we have done now with the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) is to give a 10-year tariff. In that tariff,
about two years from now, it will begin to go
down. Whatever price the tariff offers now, is a
lot cheaper than diesel, inverter and petrol
generation.

“My relations also asked me, Minister, what is
this? So I’m not exempted. It is a painful pill
that I must appeal that Nigerians swallow.

It is like quinine and malaria. It is painful, not sweet,
and I know that, but I chose it because we are
not left with many choices. This is the first
major decision in power that this administration
is taking. Another problem is transmission, and
we are fixing it.”

Fashola stated that people are not interested in
investing in gas, adding that are just beginning to show interest.

“So even if you have all the power plants, where
is the fuel? So it will get better, and I can only
appeal for some understanding that we do this
in the best interest of our country.

“We have to improve certain deliveries and that
is why we have these meetings with the
DISCOs. They have to roll out meters, install
lines and transformers, among others,” the
minister said.