GOVERNMENT TO CANCEL FIXED ELECTRICITY CHARGE

 The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on Wednesday said the fixed charge currently borne by electricity consumers would be dispensed with as soon as power generation becomes economically sustainable.

The Director General of BPE, Benjamin Dikki, stated this in a press statement signed by the bureau's Head of Public Communications, Chigbo Anichebe in Abuja.

In it, the DG appealed to electricity consumers to bear the burden as it was a temporary measure.

According to him, it is the initial sacrifice consumers had to make given the huge financial investment made by the new power investors who are yet to obtain adequate returns on their investments.

Dikki said it was like what happened at the initial stages of the reform in the telecoms sector when the cost of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards and cell phones was as high as N50 000 per SIM.

He said just like SIM had crashed and sold for almost nothing, with free air time, electricity fixed charge would also crash.

The BPE boss said government was addressing the non-availability of electric metres, as the Presidency had approved N33 billion low interest intervention funds to support the Distribution Companies.

He said that this money would assist them to buy meters and other electric power accessories. He pointed out that Nigeria required three million meters yearly. Dikki also said that the reforms undertaken by the privatisation agency had impacted positively on the Nigerian economy.

He added that the bureau intended to focus attention on the transport sector in the next phase of the reforms as it  contributes about 30 per cent to the cost of doing business in Nigeria