Discos: N’Assembly Initiated Suspension of New Tariffs

Power distribution companies (Discos) yesterday rejected insinuations that they connived with the National Assembly to force the postponement of the review of extant electricity tariffs paid by consumers in the country.

Describing the report as a “conspiracy theory,” the Discos stressed that the call for the suspension of the proposed service reflective tariffs was initiated by the National Assembly last Monday due to their concerns on its timing and what they saw as lapses in the internal workability of the plan within the sector.

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) made the clarification in a statement signed by its Executive Director on Research and Advocacy, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, in response to a report published by a national daily that he wrongly claimed that the Discos lobbied for the postponement.

He said while several attempts at justifying the conspiracy theory are being cooked up, what is actually being insinuated is that the leadership of the National Assembly can easily be manipulated by anyone or group of people.

“The members of the National

Assembly are representatives of the people. Based on the feedback they have been getting from their constituents, mainly around the difficult financial realities, they called for a meeting which we attended, and during the meeting, they laid out their concerns.

“Discos have spent the last couple of weeks carrying out massive sensitisations across different platforms preparing their customers for the new service reflective tariff as instructed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Discos have also been at the forefront of the call for a reviewed tariff for many years.