*Most Nigeria now pay more for electricity
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — An electricity consumption survey undertaken by a daily newspaper has revealed that despite denials by the electricity distribution companies operating in the country regarding increased electricity tariff, 72 percent of Nigerians now pay as much as three times the amount they used to pay for electricity consumption.
Although the electricity market regulator, NERC had earlier this year said the increment was between N2 and N4, however, an online Twitter poll by Daily Trust, seen and analysed by SweetcrudeReports showed that most electricity consumers pay way above N4.
A breakdown of the data showed that out of 494 people that participated in the survey, 45.3 percent stated that they now pay double what they used to pay before the hike. Some 36.4 percent noted that the tariff had tripled.
On the other hand of the divide, while 11.3 percent stated that they only experience a slight increase, 6.9 percent of the respondents said their tariff remained the same.
The above poll proved that the first two categories of electricity consumers who pay between double and triple the old price, are way more than those that experienced slight increment and non-increment in their tariffs.
A Twitter user, @BigMikeforyou stated that “the hike of electricity tariff has doubled compared to the previous year. Earlier we get almost 80 unit at 2k but now is 45 unit for 2k. Now we no longer use iron and other electronic devices that consume huge amount of electricity.”
Another Twitter user, Richard Daniel under Port Harcourt DisCo, said he often gets 153.9 units when he recharges his meter with N5000 worth of token. However, that has reduced to 88 units now, indicating 42 percent increase.
Shamsudeen Ibrahim, a resident in Abuja under Abuja DisCo, said previously, N10,000 vending got him 386 units as of November but he only got N197 units recently.
“That is about a 49 percent increase. We are just being deceived that the increment is not more than N4.”
A separate findings by SweetcrudeReports showed that residents of Iyanapaja axis witnessed a increment of N1.50k on their tariffs.
Also, a residents at Ajeromi Ifelodun area of Lagos State hinted that each compound now gets nothing less than N80-000 upward as monthly electricity bill.
” Most of us still receive estimated bill. My compound has just nine room, and we used to get between N11, 000- N15, 000 for the nine rooms. But now, we get almost N80, 000 monthly. The whole community is complaining. In fact, we had written several letters to them but they keep giving us high bills”, a resident disclosed.
“In fact, some with more rooms get as much as N100, 000 and even more monthly”, she added.
In a bid to rid itself of any blame, NERC has urged customers to file complaints of unapproved increment.
“Any customer that has been impacted by any rate increases beyond the above provision of the tariff order (between N2 and N4) should report to the Commission,” it said.