Aba Power Limited has adjusted its tariff. This is coming almost two months after the other 11 electricity distribution firms in the country increased their tariff for Band A customers as a result of the prevailing economic situation.
The company’s Managing Director, Ugo Opiegbe said in a telephone interview on Thursday that Band A Maximum Demand (MD) customers, who receive power for at least 20 hours daily, will now pay between N114.66 and N117.1 per kilowatt hour (kWh), up from N109.79 KWh.
For non-MD customers in Band A, their tariff is even lower, pegged at N106.56/kWh.
“It is still the lowest in the country for that category of customers”, Opiegbe said, contrasting it with rates charged by other electricity firms.
Last 3 April, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) permitted the Distribution Companies (DisCos) to increase their tariff from N66 kWh to N225 kWh for Band A customers who are said to make up 15 per cent of electricity users. President Bola Tinubu in early May ordered its reduction to N206.80 kWh.
“Our Band A MD customers are primarily industrialists who are unfortunately experiencing serious headwinds, and it is because of them that Prof. Bart Nnaji, the founder and chairman of the Geometric Power Group, established the 188-MW gas-fired plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba”, Opiegbe said.
A former Minister of Power, Nnaji was a distinguished Professor of Manufacturing Engineering in the United States before relocating to Nigeria to set up the Aba Independent Power Project, Nigeria’s only integrated electricity group, which Vice President Kashim Shettima commissioned on 26 February on behalf of President Tinubu.
Three weeks ago, the Southeast zone of the Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) commended Aba Power, which commenced operations only in September 2022, for retaining the 2023 approved tariff structure in nine of the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia State where it supplies electricity.
“Yet, this is the only DisCo in the nation that has not benefitted from the trillions of Naira paid to others in subsidy since the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria assets in November 2013”, ECAN Southeast Zonal Chairman, Engineer Joe Ubani, and Secretary, Comrade Chris Okpara echoed.
A former senior manager with the defunct National Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, Engr. Cliff Eneh described both Nnaji and Geometric Power as “hugely self-sacrificing”.
He added: “Frankly, they behave like people in a vocation whose mission is to provide affordable, quality, and constant power to the citizens, despite all they have gone through in the last 20 years”.
BAMGBELU ADENIYI AKINYEMI
30 May 2024 at 6:18 pm
What would have been the reactions of some if the tarrif increments within two months was done by Tinubu.