Members of the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN) have raised the alarm that the recent 300 per cent electricity tariff hike is already threatening the survival of businesses in the country. The group noted that with the new tariff of N225/kwh, Nigeria now ranked third after Germany and United Kingdom on the list of countries with high electricity cost.
OPSN comprises of Business Membership Organisations (BMOs), MAN, NACCIMA, NECA, NASSI and NASME, and all representing more than five million businesses. The OPSN, as a matter of urgency, is calling on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter and urgently reverse to status quo, saying that medium sized company using 700kw would need to pay about N1.4 billion for power per annum.
The Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who made this known in a statement yesterday, said that the OPSN had received numerous complaints from its member-companies on the implications of the astronomical increase by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for Band A customers without proper consultations with the private sector.
According to him, this sudden exponential increase in the face of inadequate electricity supply is inimical to the competitiveness of Nigerian products and businesses and will definitely lead to higher cost of production. Ajayi-Kadir said: “OPSN has taken due notice of the various reforms initiated by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to stabilise the economy, enhance human capital development and increase the tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 per cent while enhancing fiscal transparency.
“We commend the efforts of government in this direction and look forward to an accelerated implementation of the right policies to achieve the set objectives. “It is against this backdrop and after extensive consultations with our members that we address a recent concerning issue that is threatening the survival of our businesses.”
