NERC begs Nigerians over persistent power cuts

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Wednesday sought understanding from Nigerians over the drop in power supply lately.

The Acting Chief Executive of NERC, Dr. Tony Akah, made this appeal while receiving a delegation of the International Association of Energy Economics at the headquarters of the commission in Abuja.

He blamed the drop in power supply on vandalism and the heavy downpour witnessed in parts of the country recently.

Adducing reasons for the drop in power, the NERC boss said: “The decline in power, as you may know, part of the reasons has to do with the issue of pipelines vandalism and the heavy downpour that happened in the past. But I must say that all the agencies of government who are involved, even at the highest levels in the country, are concerned and the vandalised gas pipelines are rapidly being repaired.

Read also: Kachikwu says petrol pump price may go up in May

“So there is hope that we will be having incremental power as the operating environment becomes more conducive. Given the regulatory framework we have put in place and the political will and policy thrust of the government, Nigerians in no distant time will be experiencing additional or incremental power.”

He however pleaded for more understanding on the part of Nigerians.

“We ask (for) a little more patience because the power industry is a very complex, expensive and long-term turnover sector. Also, as you may be aware, we’ve given out a lot of licences. Most of those licences at that point in time could not get the necessary financial backing because of the non-conducive environment that they had in terms of business operating environment.

“But of recent, a lot of them are coming on board and many have signed-in and we are confident that more power will come into the grid and more Nigerians will have increased supply as time goes on.”

On the increase in tariffs and why power distribution companies still went ahead to implement the hike despite interventions from the Senate asking them to stay action, Akah stated that NERC had advised aggrieved electricity consumers to forward their complaints to the commission.

 

 

 

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