Electricity tariff - Electricity tariff regime that will take into consideration the ranks of consumers with very low income is currently being worked out by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). The commission which revealed this yesterday in Abuja, said that it was working out strategies to introduce a pro-poor electricity tariff rates for Nigerians who could not conveniently pay for the electricity they consume. Speaking at a forum with a team of experts from the United States of America from the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) under the umbrella of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), chairman of the commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, however, disclosed that the commission was presently faced with the challenge of identifying the real poor population. The objective of the meeting he said, was aimed at discussing the framework for the establishment of the power consumer fund that would ultimately subsidise electricity tariff for the poor consumers.

Amadi explained that the brainstorming session, which was the 7th in the series and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), would help set up programmes and regulations that would assist low-income electricity consumers in the country to meet up with the obligation of paying for power consumed via a sort of electricity credit regime as encapsulated in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms (EPSR) Act 2005.

He stated that the pro-poor tariff regime was expected to be supported by funding from high profile electricity consumers, adding that it would be administered by a credible framework with the instrumentality of PCAF.

He added that NERC would postpone the announcement of the inauguration of the PCAF planned alongside the expected new electricity tariff in January 2012, due to some challenges bordering on identification of who the real beneficiaries of the initiative should be.

Juliet Alohan

Leadership/26/10/2011