Yesterday Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing during his address to lawmakers when he was grilled by the Senate Joint Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity; Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, said Federal Government will not go back on the 45% increase in electricity tariff, adding that a reversal will cost over N575 billion.
Fashola who was summoned alongside the executive chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Anthony Acka, following Federal Government’s refusal to halt the new electricity tariff, explained that the new tariff was necessary for the market to survive adding that a number of indices, such as borrowing rate for investors, exchange rate, availability and cost of gas, among others also contributed to the hike.