UPDATED: Reps order NERC to halt planned electricity tariff hike

The House of Representatives Committee on Power has ordered the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to halt all actions relating to the planned increase in electricity tariff across the country.

This came following dissatisfaction of the Hon. Aliyu Magaji-led committee, with efforts of the agency at explaining the rational behind the increase, which had remained a subject of controversy since it was made public on December 31, 2019.

Magaji while giving the directive on Tuesday said “we have to ask you to put this on hold until proper consultation is done, as I am going to liaise with the Senate committee”.

According to the lawmaker, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila would next week commence wider consultations over the new tariff plan, after which the position of the House would be made known, insisting that there were a lot of preliminary issues to be addressed before the thought of any tariff increase.

Earlier at the meeting, Mr. Smashudeen Mahmood, a General Manager at NERC told the committee that the new plan was fallout of the federal government’s desire to withdraw subsidy on electricity tariff, beginning from.April.

Also speaking, the Minister of power, Saleh Maman, who was represented at the meeting by Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Ahmed Abdul explained that the ministry had limited involvement in the entire exercise, as it fell within the responsibilities of NERC.

The session however turned a little dramatic, when Mr. Abdul could not give statistics of how many Nigerian consumers ha e been metered .

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