According to the Federal Government, Nigeria has some of the lowest electricity consumption costs and the highest rate of consumer default worldwide.
This occurred at the same time that Senator Gabriel Suswam, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, claimed that state governments, educational institutions, and military establishments were among the organizations that had fallen behind on their power bills.
The Federal Government heavily subsidies electricity in the nation, making it the cheapest in the world, according to Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, the Minister of State for Power, who testified alongside the heads of numerous agencies in the power sector before the Senate Committee on Power on Thursday in Abuja.
By comparing the price of energy in Nigeria with that in its neighbors, he provided evidence for his argument.
“The cost of electricity in Nigeria is the lowest anywhere in the world, particularly gas to power, which is heavily subsidized,” claimed Aliyu.
As an illustration, he said, “While the price of power in Nigeria is 15 cents per kilowatt, it is 42 cents in the Niger Republic, 23 cents in the Republic of Benin, 25 cents in Mali, 28 cents in Senegal, 27 cents in Burkina Faso, etc.
However, he bemoaned the fact that while the government was making every effort to make electricity accessible and affordable for Nigerians, many common consumers—and even important government agencies—failed to pay their bills.
Sulyman Abdulaziz, the managing director of Transmission Company of Nigeria, expressed similar regrets, claiming that recent disconnections of the electricity distribution companies in Kaduna and Kano from the national grid were caused by the high rate of electricity bill defaults by important government agencies.
Despite being briefly reconnected, he continued, TCN must be paid through the impacted Discos during the granted 60-day grace period.
The committee’s chairman, senator Gabriel Suswam, and other members, including senators Adamu Aliero and Yusuf Yusuf, proposed alternatives, including the ministry of finance deducting from source the electrical expenses of such institutions.
Suswam claims that one of the Discos’ grievances, notably those of Kaduna and Kano, is the huge amount they owe to energy bill defaulters.
He said, “The Discos as indicated in the written complaint particularly listed military forces across the country, educational institutions, state governments, etc. to be the main culprits.