HirstMOG:
APSHIT supporters should keep clapping for Fashola, Daura clown and Lie Muhammed. Fashola is the right man for the job, so don't wail yet. Hypocrite government.

It was the PDP who privatized the PHCN....not APC.

obailala:
Where would the power come from when the power companies claim they dont have enough revenue to even operate the present facilities, let alone improve?

I would rather say, "pre-paid meters before increment." With that, we know we only pay for what we use.

Everything is so unfair in this country. Am in Kaduna presently and my friend told me that prepaid meters are distributed free of charge here that not including the power supply they enjoy here. But in Lagos, we pay heavily for substandard prepaid meters that takes close to 2 and a half years before they supply it but pack up before one full year usage.

These are the major corruption the common man is facing and should be addressed if this government is serious..

please what about the (750) fixed charge monthly that amounts to billions of Naira, didn't it settle the gas charges? Or the estimated bills charged to customers for power not consumed which amount into billions.

The problem is they want to make more profit. I pay around N20, 000per month for a 2 bedroom apartment with at least 5-6 hours power in 2days (estimated bill). Now please add 45%to that and tell me how visible that is.

If they cannot operate they should hands off. The Government should open the market for free entry and see how things will change.

blazetitov:
This increment in tariff is for the generation companies and the gas suppliers. The gas suppliers are not part of the power sector, but they will not supply gas to our power stations if we don’t pay them.

“So, we’ve been talking about appropriate pricing of this product, and now somebody is playing politics with electricity. It is unacceptable and this has a lot of consequences. The first major consequence is darkness. If there’s no way we can sustain the industry, it will collapse. And now, the generator mafias will be happy because their expensive trade will thrive.


That would be the end result. No sensible businessman will continue to run a business that cannot even cover the attributable variable cost. Gas doesn't come cheap, it is costly not to mention the equipment and transmission lines. God have mercy on the country.


Senseless politicians!!

#powerbeforeincrement
Spread the word before we end up pay in outrageous tariffs to this fuckin a**holes

Stories for the babalawo side chick.

The sad thing is that we had to privatize the power sector...because we had no choice. This is one decision of GEJ that made sense.

The problem is....Nigerians want to pay zero naira for electricity. And they expect miracles from the private companies who are dealing with poor equipment, and poorly trained staff.

If GSM was not privatised from the word go.....it would have been messed up by now.

kennyman2000:



seems, you're fashola's PA. Can you give me a detailed explanation or analysis of how they spent Jonathan's bail out fund. If you can, i'll agree with all what u posted.

Don't mind the dude..after stealing 500 billion as bailout..you are right that dude must work with Fashola

phlemzy:
The earlier you realise that the current power sector cannot be sustained with the removal of fixed charges and reversal back to old rates,the better. Discos will not do a business without making profits. They need money pay workers' salaries,pay Gencos for the power supplied them, a fraction of their revenues will go to the transmission line maintenance firms, and even out of this revenue,they will still have to pay for the power losses due to the aging transmission lines. At start off point years back,they have loan facilities obtained by them which they still have to service. Getting another loan may not be a right choice for them when they know that the revenue they'll make will not sustain the running of the business. Its very unfortunate that we may keep hovering around 2000-4500MW at generation level since we all are not ready to tolerate any form of increment.

The principle of business is that you invest sufficient capital before you start thinking of profit. Do they think that they can just start making the money easily the way MTN did? by buying PHCN. Why can't they do their feasibility study properly before bidding. They can make the nation black out we are use to it.

steppin:
We saw this coming. Another cartel doing their best to hold the country to ransom.

By the time PMB descends on them now, they will shout rule of law, even Fayose will abuse PMB for doing the needful. We are in a big poo in this country.

HirstMOG:
APSHIT supporters should keep clapping for Fashola, Daura clown and Lie Muhammed. Fashola is the right man for the job, so don't wail yet. Hypocrite government.

You probably don't know that President Jonathan carried out this privatisation programme and set up the NERC which was quoted in the OP's write up. You also probably don't know that the tarrif increase has been pre-agreed with the power companies since the Jonathan era under the MYTO 1 and MYTO 2 agreements.

So before you spew forth further hatred for the current government, educate yourself on the happenings in the power sector over the last eight years and realise that the hands of Fashola are somewhat tied presently unless you suggest that we undo the errors of the past administration.

adipemcanis1:
The sad thing is that we had to privatize the power sector...because we had no choice. This is one decision of GEJ that made sense.

The problem is....Nigerians want to pay zero naira for electricity. And they expect miracles from the private companies who are dealing with poor equipment, and poorly trained staff.

If GSM was not privatised from the word go.....it would have been messed up by now.

The privatization thing was a scam, what infrastructure has the discos provided for us to take them serious? when the gsm companies came, they started building infrastructure immediately cos they meant business.

Inspectahdeck:
please what about the (750) fixed charge monthly that amounts to billions of Naira, didn't it settle the gas charges? Or the estimated bills charged to customers for power not consumed which amount into billions.

The problem is they want to make more profit. I pay around N20, 000per month for a 2 bedroom apartment with at least 5-6 hours power in 2days (estimated bill). Now please add 45%to that and tell me how visible that is.

If they cannot operate they should hands off. The Government should open the market for free entry and see how things will change.

Exactly bro, this is where I will hold PMB responsible and start attacking him if he does not reverse the phcn privatization scam by the previous FG, those discos or skelewu guys are not ready for business I tell you. Its time for Baba to descend on them like he has done with subsidy scammers.

Nepa just deg make noise, blackout kò, whiteout ní, for the past 3weeks I never see light pass one hour in a day, they are here talking trash

Goke7:


The privatization thing was a scam, what infrastructure has the discos provided for us to take them serious? when the gsm companies came, they started building infrastructure immediately cos they meant business.

Stop comparing power and telcoms, that's like comparing apples to chickens.

Power is a capital intensive business and the truth of the matter is if the country wants to make progress, we need the increase in tariff. What the senate should have done/ do is make it a criminal offence to give consumers estimated billing.
That way, you either provide the meters of give out free electricity.

They should provide pre-paid meter for all,so tht ppl will pay for what they consume than threatening blackout...
have they 4goten Nigerians are used to darkness & virtually everyone has generator,,

admax:
The senators really needs to be educated on this as must of them don't understand the dynamics. I can't blame them because they only understand politics.

Nigerians are paying the 2nd cheapest electricity in Africa but want to enjoy 24hrs light as if thr equipment needed for electricity generation, transmission are cheap!

Azura a 450MW Genco in Edo will spend over $1.2billion to build the plant, sell to NBET who will give Gencos who will well for stipends while battling with consumer's who don't pay bills and illegal connections etc so Gencos won't be able to pay NBET who won't pay Azura who won't be able to pay their bank loans (and for gas supply)!

Solution: Increase electricity tariff and cancel estimated billing to consumers. Disconnect those that don't pay. This will bring confidence to the market and attract investors!

People are paying 100 times more than the tariff for running their generators!

Very informed post. Unfortunately, sentiment will likely prevail over reason as it usually does in our clime. Most people commenting on this topic have no idea how long it took Azura to conclude its development phase of its GFPP. The politicisation of the tariff increase by the Senate sends a very bad signal to investors.

Azura is the first project-financed IPP to close financially in Nigeria. The project took far too many years to conclude due to the difficulty of developing bankable financed projects in Nigeria. Truth is there are very few of such projects being developed that will close out financially in the next 3 years with the current climate. Uncertainty in the Tariff regime will kill investor confidence.

It costs approximately $1.8mn/MW to develop a gas power plant and $2.73mn/MW to develop a coal power plant. When you consider that the developer will fund the construction of the gas pipeline and transmission lines (to closest substations), the above cost increases considerably.

Simply put, it costs MONEY to develop power projects. Without a bankable tariff, there will NEVER be any real growth in the power sector.

There's a lot truth people just don't want to hear and this is just a taste of it.

Inspectahdeck:
please what about the (750) fixed charge monthly that amounts to billions of Naira, didn't it settle the gas charges? Or the estimated bills charged to customers for power not consumed which amount into billions.

The problem is they want to make more profit. I pay around N20, 000per month for a 2 bedroom apartment with at least 5-6 hours power in 2days (estimated bill). Now please add 45%to that and tell me how visible that is.

If they cannot operate they should hands off. The Government should open the market for free entry and see how things will change.

N20,000 per month

#Faints

kennyman2000:



seems, you're fashola's PA. Can you give me a detailed explanation or analysis of how they spent Jonathan's bail out fund. If you can, i'll agree with all what u posted.

lol @ Fashola's PA..

AZeD1:

Stop comparing power and telcoms, that's like comparing apples to chickens.

Power is a capital intensive business and the truth of the matter is if the country wants to make progress, we need the increase in tariff. What the senate should have done/ do is make it a criminal offence to give consumers estimated billing.
That way, you either provide the meters of give out free electricity.

Am not actually against the increase bruv but truth be told, you can't ask people to pay for a service not rendered, that has been the issue and why did they stop giving out pre-paid meters for a very long time, I use a pre-paid meter and so the tariff increase does not bother me at all as I don't even have light in my area but my meter will not read one kobo, the removal of service charge sef is a a bonus to me as I may not need to recharge for a whole year sef but same cannot be said for those on the estimating billing system as they must cough out money whether there is light or not.

The truth is most of the gsm companies are owned by foreigners apart from glo who mean business, so they are working but the discos were shared and bought by the same Nigerian greedy politicians who don't mean well for Nigerians but just want to be collecting and spending our money as usual. This is why the present FG must reverse the privatization scam and open it up to even foreigners who will be ready to do business and build infrastructure.

Truth be told Nigerians can be bad managers otherwise how do you explain how visaphone being bought over by mtn and how come dstv continues to enjoy monoploy. open up the power sector to both local and international investors and see whether we will not have light 24hrs a day. We are our own problems.

locutas:


Very informed post. Unfortunately, sentiment will likely prevail over reason as it usually does in our clime. Most people commenting on this topic have no idea how long it took Azura to conclude its development phase of its GFPP. The politicisation of the tariff increase by the Senate sends a very bad signal to investors.

Azura is the first project-financed IPP to close financially in Nigeria. The project took far too many years to conclude due to the difficulty of developing bankable financed projects in Nigeria. Truth is there are very few of such projects being developed that will close out financially in the next 3 years with the current climate. Uncertainty in the Tariff regime will kill investor confidence.

It costs approximately $1.8mn/MW to develop a gas power plant and $2.73mn/MW to develop a coal power plant. When you consider that the developer will fund the construction of the gas pipeline and transmission lines (to closest substations), the above cost increases considerably.

Simply put, it costs MONEY to develop power projects. Without a bankable tariff, there will NEVER be any real growth in the power sector.

There's a lot truth people just don't want to hear and this is just a taste of it.

provide the service and people will pay, we don't need all these grammar abeg, people are ready to pay for the service they will consume, that is the point Nigerians are making.

Inspectahdeck:
please what about the (750) fixed charge monthly that amounts to billions of Naira, didn't it settle the gas charges? Or the estimated bills charged to customers for power not consumed which amount into billions.

The problem is they want to make more profit. I pay around N20, 000per month for a 2 bedroom apartment with at least 5-6 hours power in 2days (estimated bill). Now please add 45%to that and tell me how visible that is.

If they cannot operate they should hands off. The Government should open the market for free entry and see how things will change.

Ehen, Come , You dey run pure water factory for the house

If this is true, then you need to complain unless you don't have a meter. You referred to the N750 monthly charge but you forgot to mention that when these companies were sold, the were sold with huge liabilities and moribund equipment. If we want steady power, we should be ready to pay for it.

Bevista:
Let's put things in perspective a bit.
---
Apart from Transmission, the FG has completely divested from Generation and Distribution of power. The private companies managing the GENCOs and DISCOs are likely not to make any long term investment in the sector if pricing of their services is going to always be politicized rather than regulated by the appropriate agency.
---
15 years ago, even with very low network penetration, we allowed GSM companies to charge Nigerians N25k for SIM cards and N50/min for calls. The companies were excited because that price compensated for their investment risk. They invested billions of dollars in infrastructure, employing thousands of Nigerians and supporting thousands of vendors. Today, SIM cards are less than N100 and calls are less than N7/min. Today, you can practically receive calls from every nook and cranny of the country.
ffs---
My point is that the sooner we accept the initial discomfort of high price,[b] the sooner we will get to the point of constant power and lower tai.[/b]r If we were courageous enough to do this ten years ago, we would probably be generating over 20,000MW today with a much reduced tariff. Postpone it and you postpone progress and development. The price we are not willing to pay today will inadvertently be paid (even more) through high cost of manufacturing and running businesses due to inadequate power supply.
---
The actions of the Senate can only work when trying to force the hand of the Executive, not arm twisting private businesses. The private companies have already invested some money in paying for licenses and setting up offices. GENCOs have invested in buying or building power plants. Investments on further infrastructure will need to come from customer receipts. You don't expect them to go to their bank to borrow money for long term investment without clarity on revenue expectations.

Any example of a country that privatized this sector wholly, the way you are suggesting, that is enjoying that low tariff right now?

At whatever rate, main issue, please remove this fixed charge.

admax:
The senators really needs to be educated on this as must of them don't understand the dynamics. I can't blame them because they only understand politics.

Nigerians are paying the 2nd cheapest electricity in Africa but want to enjoy 24hrs light as if thr equipment needed for electricity generation, transmission are cheap!

Azura a 450MW Genco in Edo will spend over $1.2billion to build the plant, sell to NBET who will give Gencos who will well for stipends while battling with consumer's who don't pay bills and illegal connections etc so Gencos won't be able to pay NBET who won't pay Azura who won't be able to pay their bank loans (and for gas supply)!

Solution: Increase electricity tariff and cancel estimated billing to consumers. Disconnect those that don't pay. This will bring confidence to the market and attract investors!

People are paying 100 times more than the tariff for running their generators!

This sounds like a PHCN staff talking.

Inspectahdeck:
you stated that "discos will not do business without making profit" very true but where I have a problem is when a business makes profit the ultimate. Power generation business is a long term profit orientated business, not short term.

From fixed charges and estimated bills they made billions of Naira, how did they spend same? Because if they reinvested the billions back into the system the sector would be better or at least improved from the previous state.

What about prepaid meters they refused to share? Let them share same before any increment. So customers know they are paying for what they consume.

Maybe there should be a public analysis of what the revenues/expenditures of all the Firms involved in generation,transmission & distribution look like so that there can be some justifications to their requests for increase. On the issue of prepaid meters, I wouldn't understand why they don't want to share them to consumers.

Why must the masses pay for the evil deeds of the politicians? The privatization stuff was a scam from the beginning. If the discos don't have funds( which is a lie) they shdnt have ventured into the market in the first place. I haven't had electricity for days now and yet they will give me a bill of 17k as they always do even though I have a meter. No improvement no increment. Source for loans somewhere else

God help Nigeria

Goke7:


Am not actually against the increase bruv but truth be told, you can't ask people to pay for a service not rendered, that has been the issue and why did they stop giving out pre-paid meters for a very long time, I use a pre-paid meter and so the tariff increase does not bother me at all as I don't even have light in my area but my meter will not read one kobo, the removal of service charge sef is a a bonus to me as I may not need to recharge for a whole year sef but same cannot be said for those on the estimating billing system as they must cough out money whether there is light or not.

The truth is most of the gsm companies are owned by foreigners apart from glo who mean business, so they are working but the discos were shared and bought by the same Nigerian greedy politicians who don't mean well for Nigerians but just want to be collecting and spending our money as usual. This is why the present FG must reverse the privatization scam and open it up to even foreigners who will be ready to do business and build infrastructure.

Truth be told Nigerians can be bad managers otherwise how do you explain how visaphone being bought over by mtn and how come dstv continues to enjoy monoploy. open up the power sector to both local and international investors and see whether we will not have light 24hrs a day. We are our own problems.

The power sector (generation) is open to anybody.
As for meters, my point is the senate should criminalize estimated billing. That way, the power companies can't say the government or anyone is limiting investment.

Inspectahdeck:

How can you buy or startup a business expecting to finance with customer's money?

Etisalat didn't make profit for 2yrs in nigeria but they were giving out free credit/sms and data plan just to gain customer trust.
DISCO is just after milking us, and the government is supporting it indirectly

For almost 2yrs, they charged 750 Naira as fixed charge per month (either you use their product or not). please multiply 750 by 1m people= 750,000,000..... and the greedy people are hoping for a 45% increase in tariff to operate.

What about estimated bills? What they do is the company zones a particular amount to an area or district and expect the marketers to distribute charges randomly to their customers. That is why a lot of people receive outrageous bills and they are reluctant to share meter to customers.

What about the increment already before now,
Imagine paying 2000 those days (the read the old meter) before it was privatise.

EKEDP billed 5k still no improvement. We still contribute to buy transformer/fuse etc for the transmission. We still paid for 3months darkness...
Give us prepaid they refuse, some months it's 12k with like 3times 6hrs light, darkness the rest.
We have the money, give us prepaid meter even add the bribes make it 50k for single face, but they refuse.

Except some new house that will give them 70 - 100k for single face, it will not take 3months you will see prepaid installed in that new house
I am fed up, the FG is not even helping matter

ATERI:
Any example of a country that privatized this sector wholly, the way you are suggesting, that is enjoying that low tariff right now?

From NERC multi-year pricing template, tariffs should come down in 3-4 years. But that's really not the point. The real point is getting regular power supply and paying an appropriate price for it even if it is marginally higher. Most things go up in price due to inflation.

One of Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan's numerous messes that Buhari is working hard to clean up.

Goke7:


The privatization thing was a scam, what infrastructure has the discos provided for us to take them serious? when the gsm companies came, they started building infrastructure immediately cos they meant business.

You are very correct Goke. Econet and MTN paid almost US$300M each in licensing fees and still spent additionally over a billion dollars to build infrastructure from scratch to the level we are today. They were serious business entities which were already in existence and operations before bidding for the Nigerian licences. They also brought in a functional billing mechanism which put them and not the consumer in charge of bills collection.

The entities GEJ's government sold our power structure to were only briefcase companies with only owners and letterhead papers!! Most of them borrowed funds to pay for the licenses and had no financial nor technical knowhow to improve the structure they were taking over!!!

For those of you who live in Lagos, have you ever seen any IKEDC or EKEDC project around your neighbourhood? Groundbreaking, base cell installation, new 33KVA projects, step down transformers, smart meters that can b remotely tripped off etc

This is not privatisation, no, this is crony capitalism and crass rent collection.

kjhova:


You probably don't know that President Jonathan carried out this privatisation programme and set up the NERC which was quoted in the OP's write up. You also probably don't know that the tarrif increase has been pre-agreed with the power companies since the Jonathan era under the MYTO 1 and MYTO 2 agreements.

So before you spew forth further hatred for the current government, educate yourself on the happenings in the power sector over the last eight years and realise that the hands of Fashola are somewhat tied presently unless you suggest that we undo the errors of the past administration.

My teacher, I have never heard of anything like continuity in governance since the history of this country, why is it only in the power sector that Fashola and Buhari hands are tied Baba leave trash for LAWMA abeg!!!