FG dismisses World Bank’s report on Nigeria’s electricity consumption

Wale Ameen
Online Editor

The Federal Government has dismissed with a wave of hand the recent World Bank’s report which states that over 78% of Nigerian electricity consumers have access to less than 12 hours of supply daily. According to the Federal Government, the report is grossly inaccurate.

This stand was made known by the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Mr. Ahmed Zakari in a statement sighted by Business a.m.

According to Mr. Ahmed’s statement, the World Bank’s statement on the nation’s power consumption is a blanket statement which does not reflect the true state of things.

He said, “It was inaccurate to make a blanket statement on the country’s power sector. The empirical evidence from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that only 55% of citizens connected to the grid are in tariff bands D and E which is less than 12 hours supply.

It is inaccurate to make a blanket statement that 78% of Nigerians have less than 12 hours daily access. The data from NERC is that 55% of citizens connected to the grid are in tariff bands D and E which are less than 12 hours supply.

Those citizens are being fully subsidised to pre-September 2020 tariffs until Discos are able to improve supply. There is a N120 billion CAPEX fund from CBN for Discos to improve infrastructure for these tariff classes similar to the metering programme that is ongoing.”

Recall that we had earlier reported that the World Bank’s report had stated that “every 1 in 10 people without access to electricity now resides in Nigeria.”

According to the bank’s practice manger in charge of West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khann  businesses in Nigeria lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity as Nigerian utilities get paid for only a half of electricity they receive.

He also went further to say that for every N10 worth of electricity received by DisCos (distribution companies), about N2.60 is lost in poor distribution infrastructure and through power theft and another N3.40 is not being paid for by customers.

He further affirmed that six in 10 of registered electricity customers in Nigeria are not metered, and their electricity bills are not transparent and clear and this contributes to resistance to pay electricity bills.