- Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has hinted at an impending review of electricity tariffs in the country.
- A review of electricity tariffs, Osinbajo said, is necessary due to the stability being witinessed in the power sector.
- Osinbajo made this disclosure at the Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, where he represented President Muhammadu Buhari as the Special Guest of Honor.
- The Vice President said that electricity tariffs cannot remain at the levels they are presently if Nigeria is to have a cost effective power sector.
“At this point, if we wanted to have a cost effective tariff, the only way is to service that core value chain, the only way is to ensure that we are paying and compensating the value chain -from generation down to distribution- a cost effective tariff.
“You cannot have that cost effective tariff without some pay. At the moment, (when you compare) how much it costs to produce power, and the amount of power that is generated, the losses on account of distribution are significant. In some cases you have up to 40% losses in distribution, and of course it is the DisCos that have to take that burden,”Osinbajo stated.
- In a related development, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also said a review of the CBN restrictions on foreign currency is not imminent.
“I want to make it absolutely clear that the position is not that a review of the CBN restrictions on foreign exchange is imminent. It is a short term measure, not a policy, and as things improve, we will have a discussion about what to do. But certainly not that a review is about to take place.”