TCN says Nigerians have to pay more to enjoy electricity

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said on Thursday that Nigerians have to pay more for electricity, if they are to enjoy the benefits of liberalisation of the power sector.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of TCN, Mr Usman Mohammed, who said this in Lagos at the groundbreaking for the replacement of old wires on the Ikeja West-Alimosho-Ogba-Alausa-Ota transmission lines, noted that the government had continued to pump money into the power sector despite privatising it more than six years ago.

He said: “We are working to transform the TCN to be one of the best transmission companies in the world. But I want to tell the Nigerian public that we cannot move forward if we don’t pay for electricity.

Read also: Nigerian govt targets 17% tax to GDP ratio by 2023

“I want to tell Nigerians that there is no relationship between poverty and payment for electricity.”

Noting that Nigeria has the cheapest electricity tariff in West Africa, Mohammed said the government had sunk N1.5 trillion into the power sector in terms of payment assurance guarantee for power generation.

“We have to stop this government intervention and we can only stop it when contracts become effective. Contracts can only be effective when you have cost-reflective tariffs”, the TCN boss said.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in its December 2019 Minor Review of Multi Year Tariff Order 2015 and Minimum Remittance Order for the Year 2020 for the 11 Discos operating in the country, on January 4, said that consumers would start to pay more for electricity from April 1, 2020.

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