Consumers paying for PHCN inefficiency –FG

[Mirror]

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has admitted that consumers are paying inefficient price for electricity, but attributed the development to the unavailability of power.

NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, who spoke in Lagos at a public forum between civil society groups and the commission, assured that tariff would reduce as generation increases.

Amadi said: "Power is unlike telecom where all you need to do is deregulate and you say come and buy spectrum which government auctions. Investors build their mast and become operational. "But in power, the investor has to determine the market, who will buy the power before beginning any investment. And it takes more than a year or two to get a plant going."

He said for the electricity sector to grow, there should be intense investments in the sector which must also be afforded a time gap to mature, saying: "One megawatt of electricity costs one million dollars to produce." Amadi expressed the commission's readiness to regulate the privatised Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

He said: "We are ready, we are a learning organisation and by next week, we are going to have a retreat to analyse what we have done and how to bridge obvious gaps.

"Forums like this are meant to build the capacity of CSO to interact with the sector and built trust. It is fantastic that we have had two tariff increases without a major outcry, it shows that our interaction is working mainly because of credibility".

Speaking earlier, the representative of the civil society coalition in the South-West, Adewale Adeoye, noted that energy provision is factor the economic development and well being of Nigerians.

National Mirror

[Folami David]

PHCN is just not doing well in this part of the world which is the reason why Nigerians are not motivated to pay their electricity bills!