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.

hob:
what have we not witnessed in this country...........Lets effing call their bluff



Awon Weyrey. Give us light 6 month straight at least then increase the tariff....

blazetitov:


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.

HirstMOG:


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!!!

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.
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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.
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My point is that the sooner we accept the initial discomfort of high price, the sooner we will get to the point of constant power and lower tariffs. 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.

adipemcanis1:


And the point is...we paid for the infrastructure the GSM companies built.

Around the time the GSM companies were rolling out....we were paying N25000 for a sim card. Back then, as a common university student, I could not afford a sim card, talkless of phones.

Once the phone/GSM companies had recouped the money they spent on infrastructure....the price came down.(Took five years...but by 2006...sims cost N400).

You cannot expect constant power supply without paying for it. You have goof GSM facilites....because millions of Nigerians were willing to pay high prices ten years ago.(And back them people complained well well).

Ximonak:

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
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

adipemcanis1:


And where do you expect the GSM companies to get the money to give you light for 24/7?

GSM companies were able to give us good service because intially we paid high prices.I can remember when V-mobile (now Airtel) was offering sims for N5000....and calling it bonanza (Really!?).

They did that because when government invited the GSM companies to invest in Nigeria...they did not give them start up money....just the licence.

The DISCOS inherited NEPA's ancient facilities.They need to fix them up,and they need to do it with money.Add the fact that we are generating half of what we need on a daily basis....sometimes less than that....and you see the problem.And government won't give them any extra money.

Let us pay the high price...so that we can pay lowprcies when the DISCOS fix up our power supply.Just like the GSM did.

Ximonak:


@bolded, we want prepaid meter, then we would pay for what we use even if it's billed higher, not paying estimates bills for darkness(that is the complain of nigerians since ages)

if we can fuel our generator set daily (least N500 daily minus maintenance), they you should know we will pay any amount for constant light but we should be given prepaid before the increment, why is it so hard...

Inspectahdeck:
I have complained oooo all I hear is "a certain amount of money is zone to an area or district, so they practically share same across". The building I stay is less than a year old, w[b]e have requested for meter even my landlord claims they paid for meter and still nothing. [/b]

True they bought liabilities from the old NEPA, but did they do proper analysis or projection before accepting same?

E.g. What do you want The company purchasing nitel's liabilities to do. The market is open and flooded so they will have to live with it and find a mean to operate and make profit.

The government should open the power market and let more players participate then they will understand the true meaning of thinking and competition.

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.

Ikiriye:

Have day been able to give you unlimited data after 15 years of service.I guess they are still expecting ROI.

adipemcanis1:


If you want unlimited data....you need a broadband service/backbone...which you have to blame the old NITEL for not providing.

Omotolu:
Fashola is an agent of darkness.

Mekwen:
This sounds like a PHCN staff talking.

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.

Bevista:
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.

odeotito:
The capital market is a veritable source of raising funds for doing big business. The power firms should look in that direction. It is absurd and unfair to ask consumers to pay outrageous sums for power not provided to have power provided! Blackmail of this sort by the power firms won't help.

phlemzy:
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.

ijustdey:







www.punchng.com/tariff-reversal-nationwide-blackout-looms-power-firms-warn/

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.

AZeD1:

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.

adipemcanis1:


And the point is...we paid for the infrastructure the GSM companies built.

Around the time the GSM companies were rolling out....we were paying N25000 for a sim card. Back then, as a common university student, I could not afford a sim card, talkless of phones.

Once the phone/GSM companies had recouped the money they spent on infrastructure....the price came down.(Took five years...but by 2006...sims cost N400).

You cannot expect constant power supply without paying for it. You have goof GSM facilites....because millions of Nigerians were willing to pay high prices ten years ago.(And back them people complained well well).