President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other principal officers of the National Assembly with the chief executives of the government electricity regulatory body and DisCos across the country.
The leadership of the National Assembly in Nigeria has waded into the controversy on the planned hike in electricity tariff from July 1, 2020 and succeeded in convincing the Distribution Companies to defer the plan until the first quarter of 2021.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other principal officers of the National Assembly with the chief executives of the government electricity regulatory body and DisCos across the country.
Also in attendance were Chairmen of the Committees on Power from the Senate and House of Representatives.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate President, Ola Awoniyi, the National Assembly leaders were emphatic at the meeting that the timing of the planned hike was wrong even though there was the need to introduce a cost reflective tariff for the power sector to attract the much-needed investment.
The statement reads, “In the course of the meeting, the DISCOs too admitted that they were not well prepared for the planned hike in tariff even though they so much desired the increase.
“The meeting agreed to defer the planned hike till first quarter of next year while the leadership of the National Assembly promised to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue.
“The agreement is that there is not going to be any increase in the tariff on July 1."