The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce electricity tariffs for 25 tertiary institutions and teaching hospitals benefiting from its completed renewable energy projects across Nigeria.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this on Wednesday at the unveiling of the state-owned Renewable Asset Management Company, RAMCO, in Abuja.
According to the minister, the planned tariffs are aimed at ensuring the proper maintenance and long-term sustainability of the Federal Government’s renewable energy assets.
Tegbe said the government could no longer continue providing free electricity to institutions benefiting from the projects, stressing the need for a sustainable model for managing public infrastructure.
“It is a new dawn. We are very good at building public assets but poor at sustaining them. RAMCO offers a different model to renewable energy. Nigeria has lived too long with embarrassing electricity,” he said.
The minister recalled that some universities had visited him to express appreciation after enjoying free electricity for two years, but said the era of free power supply was coming to an end.
“Some universities came to me on a courtesy visit to thank me after using free light for two years. I told them, thank you; the pro bono is over. We are coming to commission, and you will pay tariff. The same thing with teaching hospitals,” Tegbe added.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, supported the proposed introduction of tariffs for the Federal Government’s renewable energy installations in public institutions.
Aliyu said that since 2017, the Federal Government, through the REA, had deployed 82 megawatts of solar hybrid power across 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals under the Energising Education Programme.
He noted that while the projects had provided much-needed electricity to the institutions, there was a need to recover value from the investments to ensure the facilities remained functional.
According to Aliyu, introducing electricity tariffs would provide a sustainable means of maintaining and managing the renewable energy assets across the benefiting institutions.
The proposed move is expected to affect the 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals currently benefiting from solar hybrid power installations under the Energising Education Programme.
