The federal government has been urged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to halt the rise in electricity bill for Band A users, characterizing it as an extra financial burden on the general public. The institute’s president, Innocent Okwuosa, made this announcement in a press release on Thursday. Okwuosa claims that the public is currently grappling with issues such as high inflation, fluctuating exchange rates, and the elimination of fuel subsidies. He pointed out that the rate would only cause the population more misery and suggested that the government address the issues that the power sector’s value chain is now facing.
“The position of Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) is that NERC should suspend the hike in electricity tariff for any band of consumers and urgent steps be taken to address some if not all the challenges of the electricity distribution value chain which have been identified above.
“This is because the citizens have been grappling with the huge burden of the bold economic policies of this administration ranging from removal of fuel subsidy, unification of exchange rate and rising dollar rate, hike in interest rate, the inflationary pressure, especially food inflation among others.
“There is therefore no iota of capacity on the part of the masses to bear any further burden arising from a hike in electricity tariff,” Okwuosa said.
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FG should address monopoly of DisCos
In addition, ICAN’s president recommended that the federal government address the monopoly of the power distribution companies (DisCos) to bolster the supply chain in the power sector.
According to him, the federal government should introduce more players in the distribution segment of the power sector to encourage competition and optimize the choice of the consumers.
Okwuosa said this will lead to competitiveness and ultimately price reduction.
“Government should work to introduce competition to consumers by allowing more than one DisCo to operate in an area. Nigeria electricity consumers do not have the opportunity to switch to another DisCos as it is done in other climes.
“They are tied to one DisCo, a case of monopoly of electricity suppliers. In other climes, consumers can switch to other energy suppliers if they are not happy with the pricing or services of the electricity providers,” he added.
