In an irony of very dark proportions, Nigeria’s electricity consumers nationwide will today begin to pay more for phantom and erratic power supplies. The average price per kilowatt hour of electricity will rise to N10, up from N8.50.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) announced this in Abuja. Consumers had expected that the new tariff will take effect in January 2012, following an earlier announcement by NERC Chairman, Sam Amadi.
Mr. Amadi had said that in order to complete working out all the parameters associated with generation, transmission and distribution, the new rates had been delayed till 2012 as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan.
“This will, among other things, enable the commission to engage further with all relevant stakeholders for their understanding and also align the review dates with the calendar of most businesses, especially in the Nigerian electricity supply industry and the gas supply sector,” he said in the past
Following the development, which is certain to boost inflation in the country, a large number of consumers besieged different sales outlets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria to buy prepaid cards in order to beat the deadline, which expired at midnight last night.
Jul22011