In a chat with journalist, the Minister of state for Power, Goddy Agba has said that the Federal Government (FG) has not increased electricity tariff.
According to him, a committee set up by the government has submitted its report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), for review following which the committee would further sit on to fine-tune it.
READ ALSO: Jim Ovia set to earn N1.1 billion in Zenith Bank H1 2021 dividends
The Minister said, “There has not been an increase in electricity tariff. We are working on getting a suitable and acceptable tariff that will be acceptable to all Nigerians. It is going to be fair and equitable. I assure you of this.”
He also gave the assurance that the government is not interested in putting in place a tariff regime that will bring hardship to the people.
“The intention of government is to solve the problem of the people; so it won’t unilaterally impose tariff that will bring hardship on her people. We are working together with Labour; we know the minimum wage is not enough to carry on all of the problems we have. So, I assure you that when a new tariff regime comes in place, both labour and Nigerians will be happy because we are not working in isolation of labour- labour is for the people; labour is on that committee and they are guiding us appropriately,” Agba said.
The minister’s clarification came on the heels of reports of a planned tariff hike as contained in a new tariff order by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos), sanctioning the increase.
It would be recalled that NERC, a letter entitled ‘Tariff Increase Notification’ gave the energy distributors the leverage to charge a service- based tariff.
