We disagree to the new Electricity Tariff - Industry Stakeholders

In July 2015, the Federal High Court in
Lagos had ordered the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) not to increase electricity tariff.
Speaking, the president of the
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria
(MAN), Dr Jacob Udemba, said that a
court injunction has been obtained by the
association and that any act of
disobedience would bring the
perpetrators to contempt.
“I don’t know about the commencement
or implementation of any tariff, but I can
tell you that the MAN went to court and
obtained an injunction to that effect.
Recently, I led a team of the MAN
members to a meeting with the NERC in
Abuja and we had fruitful deliberations.
However, when the issue of tariff was
raised I reminded them that the case is
already in court. On that note all
stakeholders at the meeting agreed to
set up a committee made up of the MAN
members. One of the terms of reference
of the committee is to review the tariff
considering our position and whereby an
agreement is reached we shall all
approach the court for out-of-court
settlement.
The acting director-general of the
Nigerian Textile Manufacturers
Association (NTMA), Mr Hamma
Kwazafa, has said that the new
electricity tariff has come at the wrong
time.
According to him, “Already, we are being
troubled by the foreign exchange, the
dollar rate has gone high and we cannot
import some of the raw materials for
manufacturing, coupled with all these
now is the new tariff. As at last year the
Nigerian electricity tariff is the highest
among the three biggest countries in
Africa. Egypt pays four cents per kilowatt
(KW), the same as South Africa, while
Nigeria pays 15 cents/KW. It is even at
this rate that the federal government has
increased the tariff. We cannot transfer
any price to consumer as already they
feel our prices are high because of the
high overhead costs in production.
“With this they are going to cripple
manufacturing. It appears that this
government has come with the view that
they want to generate more employment
and I don’t see how manufacturing can
create more employment when there is
no market.”
He noted saying “Already there is a court case that
has clearly stated that there should be no
more tariff increase but unfortunately it
has not been adhered to.