Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has confirmed that President Bola Tinubu has instructed the government to avoid raising electricity tariffs until the country achieves regular and incremental power supply.
Adelabu made this statement at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday while commenting on the call for a cost-reflective tariff, which would increase the amount payable for electricity.
“You can’t just jump in and implement a cost-reflective tariff,” he explained, stressing the importance of the power sector.
“I can tell you that, till today, the government still subsidises power,” he said,
“Tariffs should have been raised months back, but Mr President said, until we are able to achieve regular and incremental power supply, we can’t touch the tariff,” he added.
“Now, I never said that it is not yet time to charge a cost-reflective tariff. Rather, I said a cost-reflective tariff is supposed to have been implemented months ago because it is the source of liquidity to the system.”
The minister clarified that he had not stated that it was not yet time to charge a cost-reflective tariff; rather, he had said that it should have been implemented months ago because it is the system’s liquidity source.
“However, for political reasons and compassion, we cannot impose an additional burden on Nigerians.”
