Abubakar Aliyu, minister of power, says the cost of electricity in Nigeria is the cheapest in the world.
TheCable has not yet verified the claim made by the minister who spoke on Thursday in Abuja during an interactive session with the senate committee on power and heads of various agencies in the power sector.
READ ALSO: World Bank approves $500m to improve power distribution in Nigeria
The minister argued that electricity is highly subsidised by the federal government.
“Cost of electricity in Nigeria is the cheapest across the globe, particularly gas to power, which is highly subsidised,” he said.
“For example, while the cost of electricity in Nigeria is 15 cents per kilowatt, it is 42 cents in the Niger Republic, 23 cents in the Republic of Benin, 25 cents in Mali, 28 cents in Senegal, 27 cents in Burkina Faso, and so on.”
According to TheCable, he said while the government is doing everything possible to make electricity affordable and available for Nigerians, many consumers as well as critical agencies of government fail to pay their bills.
Sule Abdulaziz, managing director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), said the high rate of defaults on electricity bills by government agencies led to the recent disconnection of electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Kaduna and Kano from the national grid.
He added that although the affected DisCos have been temporarily reconnected, they must make payment to the TCN within the 60-day grace period.
Offering solutions, Gabriel Suswam, chairman of the committee, proposed that the ministry of finance should deduct the electrical bills of such agencies from source.
“The DisCos as stated in the written complaint specifically mentioned military formations across the country, educational institutions, state governments, among others,” he said.