The Principal Partner, Utilities Consumers’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, Shadrack Akinbodunse, has kicked against the proposed electricity tariff hike scheduled to commence on July 1, amidst the recent removal of fuel subsidy.

Akinbodunse stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan yesterday.

He said a hike in electricity tariff was not a welcome development at a time Nigerians were still battling with the petrol subsidy removal and its attendant effects.

“Distribution companies should make meters available to their customers without further delay if they want it to work.

“The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) should open the meter market to every qualified investor in order to create competition that will bring the price of the meter down and make them affordable to consumers.

“If meters are available and affordable, the DISCOs will gear up their readiness to accept energy from TCN and do the needful to their customers.

“But now, the reversal is the case, as consumers now pay for darkness,” he said.

Akinbodunse called on DISCO to shoulder their responsibilities to the end-users because every new installation up to transformer replacement was being done by communities without a return on their investments from the discos.

“We have a situation where customers are being asked to purchase new meters for replacement of obsolete, faulty and burnt ones, which is not good for business,” he said.