By 
Habeeb Ibrahim
The Federal Government has urged Nigerians to accept the newly proposed electricity tariff or face a total blackout.
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, issued this warning on Monday, stating that failure to implement the tariff hike would lead to a total blackout in Nigeria within the next three months.
Adelabu made this disclosure in Abuja while appearing before the Senate Committee on Power, which is conducting an investigative hearing into the recent electricity tariff increase implemented by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
According to Adelabu, “The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff. With our current situation, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariffs within the next three months.”
NERC Vice Chairman, Musliu Oseni, announced earlier this month that the commission had fixed N225 per kilowatt-hour for about 15% of electricity customers in the new Band A category.
Oseni stated that the increase would not affect customers in Bands B to E and that customers previously in Band A had been downgraded.
The commission approved the increase in electricity tariff paid by Band A customers from N68/KWh to N225/KWh, which will only affect about 15% of electricity consumers who enjoy 20 hours of power supply daily, as reported by The Guardian.
