Minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, says investors are now showing interest in the electricity sector because the federal government increased electricity tariff for Band A customers.
On April 3, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.
The commission said customers under the category, who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, will now pay N225 per kilowatt (kW), starting from April 3 — up from N66.
Appearing before the senate committee on power on Monday, Adelabu, who said the federal government could not afford to pay subsidies on power anymore, adding that, ““For this sector to be revived, the government needs to spend nothing less than $10 billion annually in the next 10 years. This is because of the infrastructure requirement for the stability of the sector, but the government cannot afford that.
“And so we must make this sector attractive to investors and to lenders. So for us to attract investors and investment, we must make the sector attractive, and the only way it can be made attractive is that there must be commercial pricing.
“If the value is still at N66 and the government is not paying subsidy, the investors will not come. But now that we have increased the tariff for A Band, there is interest shown by investors.”
Adelabu said more than N1.3 trillion is being owed to generating companies.
