By Moses Patience Chat
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswam, has said that Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have listed governments agencies, military formations, educational institutions among the defaulters In the payment of electricity bills in the country.
This was disclosed on Thursday in Abuja during a meeting with the Senate committee on power alongside the leaders of different agencies in the power sector.
During the meeting, Suswam stated that the cost of electricity consumption in Nigeria is among the cheapest and most defaulted by consumers in the world.
While speaking before the Senate committee, the Minister of State for Power, Engineer Abubakar Aliyu, added that the cost of electricity consumption in Nigeria is highly subsidized by the Federal Government, making it the cheapest across the globe. He supported his claims by making a comparative analysis of the cost of electricity in Nigeria with those of the neighbouring countries.
According to him, “the cost of electricity in Nigeria is the cheapest across the globe, particularly gas to power, which is highly subsidized.
“For example, while the cost of electricity in Nigeria is 15 cents per kilowatt, it is 42 cents in Niger Republic, 23 cent in the Republic of Benin, 25 cents in Mali, 28 cents in Senegal, 27 cents in Burkina Faso and many other countries.”
Aliyu complained that while the Federal Governments is making tremendous efforts to ensure affordability and availability of electricity for Nigerians, many ordinary consumers and even critical government agencies default in the payment of electricity bills.
Giving his recommendations, Suswam and other members of the Senate Committee on Power suggested deduction of electricity bills from source by the Ministry of Finance in respect of such defaulting agencies.