Aba city brace up for 163% tariff increase over nonstop electricity the people get
Long before they were born, most Nigerians, if not all, dream of a reality that affords them the chance to keep the lights on, power their homes, and make appliances tick. Abia State residents are already there because their officials hatched a plan to deliver a home-grown energy supply.
If there were any other place in the world to compare Aba’s appetite for manufacturing things, it would be East Asia Taiwan where multinationals leading conversations in technology hold their base for the semiconductor and device-enabling chips they get. But there is a cost to the status of handicraft excellence that this Abia State commercial capital enjoys – rather very unique when placed side by side with other sub-regionals in Nigeria – because all the residents of its nine local government areas now face a 163 percent electricity tariff increase since they have been getting supplies nonstop for the last 10 months.
Long before they were born, most Nigerians, if not all, dream of a reality that affords them the chance to keep the lights on, power their homes, and make appliances tick. Abia State residents are already there because their officials hatched a plan to deliver a home-grown energy supply.
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The Aba Power Limited Electric (APLE) is the company now making this proposal for a review at a National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) public hearing on Tuesday 10 December 2024. It seems the result of Nigeria’s economic hardships affecting businesses and their production budgets, so the bidders would be hoping for quick feedback concerning where they get their wish although it might not come until well into 2025
When Abia State enters 2025, the dream is to have electricity consumers getting unlimited supplies of their lives to pay ₦263.08KWh instead of the ₦99.90-kilowatt hour (KWh) rate that currently subsists. That was one of the visions that the APLE Managing Director, Ugochukwu Opiegbo supported when he led company representatives to the hearing.
If NERC grants the request for a new upward 2025 tariff, the customers getting their service on the A-MD1 module will cough out ₦283.09KWh, up from ₦107.50KWh. As for the Band B-Non MD element, they get to see their bill rise from ₦95.70KWh to ₦252.03KWh.
When we signed the PPA with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) sometime in 2022, NERC approved a tariff of N21KWh. Today, the last invoice we got from NDPHC was N136KWh. That’s the conundrum we have found ourselves in. That’s the major reason why we are here, pleading for NERC’s approval for this.
A lot has changed since February ending and late March when Aba Power could be seen in its early stages. Getting to see the launch was the Vice President of Nigeria Mr Kashim Shettima, which shows how huge the establishment is to Abia State and Governor Otti’s rating when it comes to directing productivity like none ever seen.
The macroeconomic developments in the country, says Mr Opiegbo, have made it difficult for APLE to continue to operate under the current tariff regime. There are some dollar-backed projects we are working on and which will be difficult to realise if we continue operating under the current tariff regime.
Every president since the unbundling of the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) to bits of distribution companies by Olusegun Obasanjo has struggled to provide a reply to supply problems, although this time under incumbent Tinubu sees opportunities in enacting policies such as the Electricity Act 2023 has been seen to have done.
Geometric Power and subsidiary Aba Power had secured a 20-year concession from the Federal Government of Nigeria to supply power exclusively to the Aba industrial city and its surrounding communities and had also constructed the 141 MW Aba Integrated Power Project (Aba IPP). These are legitimate investors hence a platform like the public hearing to blare the horns about all their worries.
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It has been because of the pioneering energy project that Lagos State had the rare mishap of playing catch-up since it has taken several months after Abia commissioned its independent electricity power plant that the southwestern Nigeria megacity got around to signing the Lagos Electricity Bill 2024 on Tuesday, 3 December.
Showing that stakeholders are being heard was NERC’s Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni live at the regulatory agency’s headquarters in Abuja yesterday. With fairness in his mind when considering any tariff review, he promised that we [would] carefully review the submissions made here today before making a final decision.
