The Federal Government says it will subsidize electricity in universities and health institutions under Band A feeders.
According to the PUNCH, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this on Saturday.
Adelabu, however, said the government would not subsidize private businesses operating in these universities and hospitals.
After the Federal Government removed subsidies from customers categorized as Band A and upgraded their daily electricity supply to a minimum of 20 hours daily, universities and public hospitals cried out that their bills had skyrocketed.
Recently, the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital cried out over what they described as an outrageous electricity bill charged by the Eko Electricity Distribution Company for May.
The institutions said they were jointly presented with a bill of about N280m for May instead of the less than N100m they used to pay.
The monthly bill given to UNILAG jumped from N180m to N300m.
The Federal University of Technology, Akure, raised its bill from N20m to N60m by the Ibadan DisCo.
The tariff was hiked from N80m monthly to N250m at the University of Benin.
The Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University, Ogun State, Prof. Ademola Tayo, said in July that the institution paid N300m as electricity tariff in May, lamenting that the high electricity tariff was a significant threat to quality education in Nigeria.
The minister said the government knows universities and hospitals are struggling to pay the bills.
“We know they are development institutions; they are social institutions. However, inside health and educational institutions, private businesses are hiding. These people charge their customers commercially, and they expect to be subsidized because they are located within the territories of these institutions.
“We said no, go and do a proper search and meter everybody. We are ready to subsidize the proper health- and education-related ones, even if they are on Band A. We are compiling our data. DisCos will collect a certain amount, and the government will pay the balance. However, we must get the data right so as not to subsidize a private business charging its customers commercially. That will be an abnormal profit, which is unfair,” he stated.
