Why FG cannot continue to subsidise electricity for Nigerians – Minister
Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, has said that the federal government can no longer sustain subsidies on electricity for Nigerians.
Adalabu, at a press conference in Abuja, said that the government is currently owing electricity generating companies N1.3trillion and gas companies, $1.3bn.
He said it is “very difficult to sustain subsidy on electricity.”
He said Nigeria must begin to move towards a cost-effective tariff model.
He revealed that only N450bn was budgeted for electricity subsidy in the 2024 budget. He said that findings by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission showed that subsidy would gulp about N2.9tn this year.
He stated that the power industry is complicated. The minister attributed the intermittent collapse of the national grid, which had happened six times between December 2023 and now, to the shortage of gas, aging machines in the grid value chain, low capacity to evacuate generated power, and destruction of power stations in some parts of the North-East geopolitical zone of the country.
