Engineers call for increase in electricity tariff

The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has called for an upward review of electricity tariff to ensure steady power supply in the country.

The call was made by the President of the association, Adekunle Mokuolu during the third memorial lecture in honour of a former National Vice Chairman of the society, John Egbe, in Calabar.

He noted that Distribution Companies (Discos) have relied on estimated billing to keep up with the high cost of production and distribution of electricity while consumers have been affected by this.

He called on the government to call for a dialogue with stakeholders in the power sector to review the policies in the sector.

He said, “Standards in this country are bastardised, so the distribution companies are using that to break even because the overhead cost for the production and distribution of electricity is very high, while the tariff is very low. So, the distribution companies, which deal directly with the consumers, have to rely on estimated billing to increase their revenue.

Read also: ELECTRICITY: NSE president calls for increased tariff, improved infrastructure

“The challenge with the power sector in Nigeria is not principally with the engineers but the problem is about how we manage the various components that make up the sector like the finance, policy, management and infrastructure, and what we intend to do is begin a dialogue with stakeholders to review and update the power sector policies.”

Otis Anyaeji, a former President of NSE who delivered a lecture at the event, said Nigerians fell short of the quantity of electricity needed to sustain the growing population compared to countries like South Africa and Egypt.

He said, “When you compare that (4,000MW) to South Africa, which produces about 52,000MW with a population of 67. 72 million and Egypt 42,000MW, you will agree that Nigeria, with a population of 190 million, is nowhere near the expected target.”

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