Electricity Tariff Hike: Why FG should scrap bands A, B, C —Ayalowo

A development economist, Ayo Ayalowo has advised  President Bola Tinubu’s administration to jettison its new regime of customer classification into bands A, B, and C on the account that Nigerians are not getting power supply.

He said this on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television.

He noted that increases in energy prices, such as electricity and diesel, are major propellants for soaring inflation in Nigeria.

Band A customers are those who receive 20-24 hours of electricity supply daily.

Subscribers under Band B enjoy 16 to 20 hours of power supply, while those in Band C receive 12 to 16 hours daily.

Band D subscribers benefit from eight to 12 hours of power supply each day, and Band E subscribers only receive four to eight hours of electricity supply daily.

However, the tariff increment has sparked controversies regarding the classification of subscribers, with many fearing they may be charged more than their actual consumption.

Ayalowo stressed that Nigerians supply are not getting the power despite the tariff hike.

“The energy prices, especially this Band A, Band B, and C nonsense, need to be jettisoned. And a sensible approach must be taken so that Nigerians can enjoy electricity at a reasonable cost. NERC needs to go back and rejig the tariff and stop the nonsense band classification because Nigerians are still not getting power supply”, he stated.

He suggested that the government should increase tariffs marginally for electricity customers nationwide.

“I will suggest that the Minister of Power and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission would have increased tariff marginally across the board, not cheating Paul to pay Peter as they are doing”, he added.

Recall that on April 3, 2024, NERC announced a hike in the electricity tariff to N225 per kilowatt-hour from N66 for customers in Band A.

However, the hike was condemned by Nigerians, including the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, and other organisations.

Nigerians continued to lament that the power supply had dropped since the tariff hike.

On Monday, the country was plunged into another complete darkness due to the national grid collapse.

Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, blamed the grid collapse on a fire incident, noting that power had been restored.