The Federal Government has unveiled plans to impose new electricity tariff rates on the use of its finished renewable energy assets by 25 tertiary institutions and teaching hospitals in Nigeria, according to Joseph Tegbe, Minister of Power.
At the launch of RAMCO, the state-owned Renewable Asset Management Company, in Abuja on Wednesday, Tegbe revealed this.
He said that the tariffs will support the preservation of the federal government’s renewable energy resources nationwide.
He said, “It is a new dawn. We are very good at building public assets but poor at sustaining them. RAMCO offers a different model to renewable energy. Nigeria has lived too long with embarrassing electricity.
“Some universities came to me on a courtesy visit to thank me after using free light for two years. I told them, thank you; the pro bono is over. We are coming to commission, and you will pay tariff. The same thing with teaching hospitals.”
Abba Aliyu, Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), reiterated the minister’s stance on implementing tariffs for the Federal Government’s renewable energy assets in public institutions.
He highlighted that through the REA’s Energising Education Programme, the Federal Government has deployed 82 megawatts (MW) of solar hybrid power across 22 federal institutions and three teaching hospitals since 2017.
Aliyu noted, however, that the Federal Government must recover its renewable energy deployment costs through electricity tariffs to ensure the ongoing maintenance and sustainability of the infrastructure.
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The renewable-energy programme has already produced major installations. Under the Energising Education Programme, solar hybrid systems have been deployed at institutions including the University of Abuja, University of Calabar, University of Maiduguri and University of Port Harcourt, among others.
Meanwhile, The proposal comes shortly after Tegbe assured Nigerians that the Federal Government had no policy to increase electricity tariffs beyond current levels.
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