Former Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi, has warned that any tariff increase in the electricity sector would affect small businesses.
Henzodaily reports that Amadi said what the country has been witnessing in the electricity sector was unusual.
In an interview with News Central on Monday, the former NERC chairman argued that the increase in electricity tariff could not be justified.
Amadi disclosed that most Nigerians have been pushed to Band A without their notice. He added that an increase in electricity tariff was supposed to come with infrastructure upgrades or emergencies, but this has happened in the country.
His words: “What’s happening in the electricity sector is unusual. Usually, when prices increase, there are three things happen. One is either there are new investments that are made in which we improve power supply, and then the operators need to recoup those returns, so you can see small adjustments in prices. Or, there is emergence, let’s say countries with a hurricane, and therefore you need to invest quickly to wrap up, to restore the same level of supply, and then those costs have to be approved and somehow amortized with small increases.
“But what we are facing now is that there is no significant increase coming anywhere. And I’ve said that before. When this tariff was approved, the so-called Band A and B and C, I spoke with some of the NEC officials. I said, look, what we are doing is that the NEC is being forced to respond to the currency crisis, the inflation that’s happening by increasing tariffs in terms of any serious improvement in quality, or any new investment.
“So, yes, it’s going to affect small and medium enterprises because the unit cost of energy will go high. And what NERC did the last time was to say it’s for those that got Band A. But the truth is that almost everybody is being pushed to Band A, and I said it was dishonest to have said that; you should have said we are going to have tariff increase.”