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Wabba has called for a review of the privatisation process
- Condemns billing for gas in dollars
- Bemoans hardship imposed on Nigerians
The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, has called for a review of the entire privatisation process of the Nigerian electricity sector. He made this known while condemning the practice of billing for gas in dollars. The NLC President said the practice of billing for gas in dollars goes against the economic theory of comparative advantage. He said, “The current practice violates the fundamental economic theory of comparative advantage, especially for a developing economy as ours. Related to this is the calculation of ancillary electricity supply logistics in foreign currencies and transferring same to electricity consumers”.
He called the practice of Generation and Distribution companies offloading the costs of equipment on the consumers “tenuous and economically unreasonable”. According to him, it is the practice of investors to procure equipment using profits from investments and not frontloading the costs to the consumers.
Wabba also accused the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of leaning more to the side of the Distribution Companies (DisCos) as opposed to being a neutral and unbiased regulator. He said, “The feelers from many stakeholders in the electricity supply chain suggest that the regulator in the sector pulls more on the side of the Discos and Gencos rather than on the side of consumers of electricity, both industrial and private users”.
The NLC President, therefore, reiterated the call of the Union for the Federal Government’s review of the entire privatisation process as the privatisation has failed to achieve the economic goals it set out to achieve.