ECCIMA Decries High Electricity Tariff

The Enugu Chamber of
Commerce, industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA) has decried the high electricity tariff  being charged by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company on individual  and companies within the south-east  states of Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra and Enugu.
A statement by the ECCIMA President Dr, Ifeanyi Eric Okoye last Monday in Enugu said despite the high electricity tariff charge  the power situation has not improved in the south-East states.
Okoye  said the power supply situation is even worse now than previously, stressing that consumers  of electricity supply in South-East States now paid almost 100 per cent electricity tariff charge  right from January 2015.
He said industrial consumers within the geo-political region used to pay N23.97 kobo per unit of electricity but from  January  it changed to  N46.66 per unit, adding that the high tariff is killing businesses within the south-East states.
The ECCIMA boss said the cost of electricity is increasing without corresponding electricity availability of improvement.
He bemoaned the situation  as very dangerous, especially for businesses in the South-East, stressing that the electricity tariff  is not uniform  in the country as in Lagos consumers paid  N26 per unit of electricity, while in the southeast consumers paid N46.66 kobo per unit.
He called upon GENCOS and DISCOS operating in the South-East  to consider the plight of the industrialists and individual consumers to have a meaningful  dialogue with the people to save the deplorable electricity supply situation.
Okoye said the leadership of the chamber is prepared to have dialogue with the federal and state governments including the National Electricity  Regulatory Commission (NERC) to fashion ways forward before industries in the south east are frustrated out of business over the power supply.
He said ECCIMA considered the entire situation unacceptable  and urge the management of the GENCOS and DISCOS to properly utilise  the recently released  power sector  funds to them to improve power supply in the south east.