Veteran Nollywood actress and sports enthusiast, Kate Henshaw, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, condemned the ongoing banding of electricity tariffs across Nigeria.
Taking to her X account, the actress opposed the continued increase in electricity traffic and banding by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
NERC had in May 2024 approved a 300 per cent tariff increment for Band A consumers, allowing power distribution companies to raise electricity prices for city dwellers from N68 to N225 per kilowatt-hour with effect from April 1, 2024.
The new tariff plans which were not well received by several Nigerians generated mixed reactions from across quarters.
With the development, citizens had called on the federal government to review the plan, although some individuals praised the government saying it was long coming to improve the power sector in the country.
The move by the NERC marked the removal of subsidy from the electricity tariff of customers in the Band A category, who constituted about 15 per cent of the total 12.82 million power consumers across the country.
Based on the tariff hike, the Federal Government said it would save N1.5 trillion.
Electricity tariff hike unfair
However, displeased by the tariff hike, Henshaw said the decision of the FG is unprecedented and unfair.
She also criticised the practice of categorising electricity supply into different bands, which determines both availability and cost.
She wrote on X, “Nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the world, is there this purported “banding” of electricity supply.”
The actress also called on the government to do its job by granting grant electricity access to citizens and allowing everyone to pay fairly for their consumption.
Her words, “Give everyone access to electricity and let them pay fairly for their consumption. Yet, every 2 to 3 months, there is an increase in tariff!! Daylight robbery in darkness.”
