FG condemns World Bank’s report on Nigeria’s daily electricity supply

The federal government has condemned the World Bank’s report, claiming that over 78% of Nigerian electricity consumers’ access less than 12 hours of supply.

The Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Ahmad Zakari, who faulted the claim in a statement, explained that the global bank’s empirical evidence used to arrive at the figure was unclear.

Zakari disclosed that 17 out of the 25 generation power plants were recently down and which led to a drop in supply across the nation, but insisted that power distribution to consumers had been steadily improving.

He said: “It was inaccurate to make a blanket statement on the country’s power sector. The empirical evidence from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that only 55% of citizens connected to the grid are in tariff bands D and E which is less than 12 hours supply.

“It is inaccurate to make a blanket statement that 78% of Nigerians have less than 12 hours daily access. The data from NERC is that 55% of citizens connected to the grid are in tariff bands D and E which are less than 12 hours supply.

“Those citizens are being fully subsidised to pre-September 2020 tariffs until Discos are able to improve supply. There is a N120 billion CAPEX fund from CBN for Discos to improve infrastructure for these tariff classes similar to the metering programme that is ongoing.”

The global financial institution explained that the amount could further increase if the country fails to take the right action.

The organisation disclosed this in its enlarged report on Nigeria Power Sector Recovery Programme on Sunday, April 25.

The report read: “FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) is spending $1.5bn per year to fund tariff shortfalls and this could continue to rise if action isn’t taken.”

The World Bank also noted that Nigeria’s power sector was operationally inefficient with unreliable supply exacerbated by high losses and lack of payment discipline.