Tariff Hike: As Labour Pickets Electricity Firms Today, DISCOs Urge Restraint

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) will today begin the picketing of electricity distribution companies (discos) across the country as part of planned protests against the increase in electricity tariff by about 45 per cent.
In Abuja, the protest is scheduled to begin from the Labour House to the head office of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) before the protesters will proceed to picket the Abuja Electricity distribution Company (AEDC).
Similarly, the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) will picket Ikeja Electric Distribution Company in Lagos.
The labour unions maintain that the tariff being charged by the discos is not commensurate with the power being supplied and that the 45 per cent increase cannot be justified.
Meanwhile, the discos under the aegies of Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) have appealed to the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and all electricity consumers in the country to support the new tariff regime, saying the increase will help mitigate negative cashflow and revenue shortfall.
The group in a statement yesterday, pointed out that the fact that power supply hit an all-time high of 5,075 megawatts (MW) last week, demostrates the evolution in the capacity of the sector to meet the country’s power needs, drive economic growth and improve quality of life of Nigerians.
ANED maintained that a private sector-driven efficiency and realistic market prices can give the sector a new lease of life, adding that the attainment of 5,075MW generated, transmitted and distributed has to be viewed in the context of a sector that barely generated 2,000MW prior to the start of the sector reforms, a little over five years ago.
The statement signed by ANED’s executive director, research and advocacy, Sunday Oduntan, said the increase will help to mitigate the negative cashflow and revenue shortfalls that have bedeviled the sector .
ANED explained that the previous non-cost reflective tariff had constrained the wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), due to the lack of access to revenues for rehabilitating, replacing and expanding grid infrastructure as well as limited the ability of discos to procure and install urgently needed meters, extend distribution networks and provide improved customer service options of automated vending, online bill payment and setting up customer call centers.
Meanwhile, the managing director of Kaduna Electric, Engr. Garba Haruna has called on the NLC and the TUC to stop their planned picketing of distribution companies as the nation cannot afford any disruption to power supply now.
Conversely, the chairman, Industrial Global Union Sub Sahara Africa and secretary general of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), comrade Issa Aremu has declared support for the planned picketing of all offices of the electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) by the labour and civil societies today saying that it was in order.