Organized Labour has embarked on a nationwide protest over the electricity tariff hike in Nigeria.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that organised labour has announced that it will on Monday (today), May 13, 2024, commence nationwide protests over the electricity tariff hike and removal of subsidy from the power sector by the Federal Government.
This Nigeria news platform understands that the National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Olatunji Ambali and the National Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress, Tommy Etim, who confirmed the planned protests on Sunday, May 12, 2024, insisted on the reversal of the tariff hike to the subsidy era.
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The action of the NLC and TUC is expected to lead to the shutdown of the Abuja headquarters of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Power and state offices of power distribution companies.
Recall that the NERC announced the hike in the electricity tariff for Band A customers at a press briefing in Abuja on April 3, revealing that those affected would pay N225 per kilowatt-hour, up from the previous rate of N68/kWh.
The hike represented a 240 per cent increase.
The development marked the removal of subsidy from the tariff of customers in the Band A category, who constituted about 15 per cent of the total 12.82 million power consumers across the country.
Based on the tariff hike, the Federal Government said it would save N1.5tn.
However, the House of Representatives, organised labour, the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, electricity consumers and civil society organisations, demanded a reversal of the hike to the subsidy era tariff.
The House called on the NERC to suspend forthwith the implementation of the new electricity tariff nationwide.
However, justifying the increase during an investigative hearing held by the Senate Committee on Power, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, argued that there would be a nationwide blackout in the next three months if the increase in electricity tariff was not implemented.
The Minister of Power said this after the Senate Committee, chaired by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, rejected the new tariff regime.
“The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff. With what we have now in the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariffs. The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians. We are also feeling the impact,’’ Adelabu declared.
