The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, on Tuesday said that the National Assembly lacks the power to prevent the leadership of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from reviewing electricity tariffs in the country.
Fashola who fielded questions from journalists at the National Assembly premises after defending the 2016 budget of his ministry, maintained that the NERC was constitutionally empowered to set new electricity tariffs for consumers in the country, saying the relevant laws backing NERC were passed by the National Assembly.
He said: “The law passed by the National Assembly clearly gives NERC the responsibility and power to give a tariff that enables them to recover their investment and returns on investment.
“So nothing unlawful or illegal has happened. So I think it was the way it was managed before we came and the review every two years.”
Recall that the National Assembly had on Sunday, warned NERC to suspend plans to implement the new electricity tariff regime in the country, following a motion passed by the House of Representatives in mid December, 2015.
Speaking on the importance of federal government’s strategic partnership with the private sector in order to generate more electricity, Fashola explained: ”People have been hearing for the past 20 years that power projects are over 99per cent complete. It is absolute nonsense. As far as I am concerned, the ultimate thing is to get into work.
“One per cent or 99 per cent, we need to get it to work and the best way to get it to work in the interest of Nigerians is to enter into any form of partnership and we will look into that.
“It is not about what I think and I said this much before. Whether we have electricity or not, is not about what all of us agree we must do. Elecricity is a product. It is made from raw materials. Some of the raw materials are gas, some of the raw materials are power plants and they are also related.
“So, the issue of tarrif is the single issue of price. When the raw materials go up, the price cannot stay the same. You may ask why can’t we have more power before the price goes up?
“I am also a consumer, but we see that investments in power are not where they should be and part of the reason why government opted for privatization was to get more private capital.
“If the recovery price and the income and profit do not make economic sense to the investor, would you do that business if you are the one?
The minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, also expressed optimism that given the various plans undertaken by the present administration in the power sector, electricity generation would increase by an additional 2,000 megawatts (MW) by the last quarter of 2016.
He explained that distribution of power is no longer government business, noting that it had been taken over by private companies with the transmission aspect being managed by Manitoba International, a Canadian firm.
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