The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on energy, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, has said her words were misrepresented during an interview in Tanzania.
Verheijen had attended a World Bank-sponsored conference in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.
There, she presented a $32 billion plan to boost electricity connections by 2030 on behalf of Nigeria.
Bloomberg reported that she said Nigeria’s power prices need to rise by about two-thirds for many customers to reflect the cost of supplying it.
Following the publication of the report, many newspapers have run amock with reports about the Federal Government’s proposed “65% increase in electricity tariffs”.
The special adviser has, however, said that her words were misrepresented, and she only meant that the current tariffs cover 65% of the electricity supply cost.
“It has become necessary to clarify media reports suggesting an imminent 65 percent increase in electricity tariffs,” she said.
“This is a misrepresentation of what I actually said in a recent press interview. I highlighted the fact that, following the increase in Band A tariffs in 2024, current tariffs now cover approximately 65 percent of the actual cost of supplying electricity, with the Federal government continuing to subsidize the difference.”
She added that the Federal Government is committed to ensuring fairer pricing, taking decisive action to deliver more electricity to Nigerians, ensuring fewer outages, and guaranteeing the protection of the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
