Ndudi Elumelu

The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Ndudi Elumelu has condemned the proposed move by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to increase electricity tariff.

Elumelu who said this in a statement on Thursday urged NERC to “end all contemplations in that direction”.

He maintained that the increase in electricity tariff would further aggravate the economic situation in the country and stress Nigerians.

“Nigerians are currently passing through grave economic stress and anything that would aggravate the situation such as an increase in electricity tariff is completely unacceptable.

“Electricity is pivotal to the economic and social lives of Nigerians and NERC should rather seek ways of making power affordable and available to Nigerians, in line with its establishment laws, instead of an increase in tariff.”

The lawmaker assured of the minority caucus’ commitment to protecting the interest of Nigerians by monitoring prevailing tariff on electricity as well as levies on other essential services in the country.

He also urged all members of the caucus in relevant committees to intensify their oversight functions in this direction for the interest of Nigerians.

NERC had on Jan. 4, published new tariffs for the different DisCos and categories of customers on its website which was signed by its chairman and Secretary Prof. James Momoh and Dafe Akpeneye respectively.

The commission said that the order super-ceded the earlier one issued on the subject matter, and “the new tariff regime takes effect from Jan. 1, 2020.’’

NERC noted that the order had taken into consideration other actual changes in relevant macroeconomic variables and available generation capacity as at Oct. 31, 2019.

The commission said the order was in line with updating of the MYTO operating -2015 Tariff Order for 2019.

According to NERC, this is in line with provisions of the amended MYTO Methodology.

“Projections are made for the variables for year 2020 and beyond based on the best available information.

However, General Manager, Public Affairs Department, Dr Usman Arabi, said the minor review order had no immediate impact on end-user tariffs payable by all classes of electricity customers in the country.