The Chief executive officers of some Discos and the Association of the Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), while reacting to complaints by electricity consumers across the country as well as a directive of the House of Representatives to halt any plan to increase electricity tariffs, have said that the call for a reduction in tariffs is an invitation to crisis.
ANED has declared that the current tariff is not cost effective and has thus insisted that the nation’s power sector will collapse if the electricity tariff remains low. It also argues that the blame of poor electricity supply is not entirely that of the Discos, stressing that the power firms were already losing about 50 per cent of what they were generating as revenue due to electricity theft and nonpayment by consumers.
The chief executive of a particular distribution company in the South-West indicated that some Discos had threatened to pull out of the privatisation process because of the huge losses. “This is why some of us threatened to pull out of the process in the past. The tariff is too low and you want it to remain that way, never! If they insist, then, this sector will collapse and that will happen soon if care is not taken,” he said.
