Rights advocate lament hike in electricity tariff amidst fuel subsidy removal

Mr. Shadrack Akinbodunse, Principal Partner, Utilities Consumers’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, has kicked against the proposed electricity tariff hike scheduled to commence on July 1, amidst the recent removal of fuel subsidies.

Akinbodunse stated this in an interview in Ibadan on Tuesday.

He said a hike in electricity tariffs was not a welcome development at a time when Nigerians were still battling with the removal of the petrol subsidy and its attendant effects.

“Distribution companies should make meters available to their customers without further delay if they want them to work.

“National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should open the meter market to every qualified investor in order to create competition that will bring the price of the meter down and make them affordable to consumers.

“If meters are available and affordable, the Discos will gear up their readiness to accept energy from TCN and do the needful to their customers.

“But now, the reversal is the case, as consumers now pay for darkness,” he said.

Akinbodunse called on discos to shoulder their responsibilities to the end-users, because every new installation up to transformer replacement was being done by communities without return on their investments from the discos.

“We have a situation where customers are being asked to purchase new meters for replacement of obsolete, faulty, and burned ones, which is not good for business,” he said.