More electricity consumers to migrate to Band A – Presidency

Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheije, said the government is interested in moving more electricity consumers in the country to Band A.

She made this known while speaking on Arise News Thursday. 

Verheijen explained that the plan is to energise the country, giving electricity to the underserved and unserved communities.

Government she said, is planning to ensure that all customers are measured to know their consumption and improve cash flow to drive investments.

She emphasised that the current reforms are to make the sector more viable, favouring both the distribution companies and their customers.

“So, whether you’re a business, if you’re in an industrial cluster, you should see improved distribution capacity, improved reliability, and improved access. And that the Discos now have the capital and the cash flow to deploy more investment and infrastructure. So, you should feel the difference in terms of service levels.

“The goal is that most customers in Nigeria become Band A customers, that is, they get over 20 hours of service. So, you should be able to see that from these interventions,“ she said.

Verheijen maintained that about 60 to 70 per cent of Nigeria’s gas goes to one sector, the power sector.

However, she said the gas companies have not been able to recover their funds from the power generation companies due to illiquidity in the sector, saying “We need to diversify the uses of our gas. But you can’t diversify if the cash flows don’t work.”

On the distribution companies, she maintained that the privatisation of the sector did not go through the rigorous exercise that could ensure that the people who bought the assets had the financial and technical capacity to make the investments that were required to drive reliability.