The Organised Private Sector, OPS, said that over 65 percent of private businesses in Nigeria, may be forced to close down over the recent electricity tariff hike.
OPS in a statement forwarded to DAILY POST on Wednesday, said the tariff increase is coming on the heels of macroeconomic instability, infrastructure deficits and other supply-side constraints limiting the performance of the productive sector.
Recall that on April 3, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission approved a 245 per cent electricity tariff hike for band A customers, getting at least 20 hours power supply.
However, OPS said the hike will have negative trickle-down effects and will further impoverish Nigerians.
“It (the new tariff) will have negative trickle-down effects and certainly impoverish Nigerians. The unwarranted increase will worsen the upward swing in inflation, aggravate the pressure on the disposable income of the average Nigerian, and lead to the closure of many private businesses. The cumulative effect will be an escalation of the current high level of unemployment and insecurity in the country,” OPS stated.
The group lamented that depsite the tariff hike, inadequate power supply had persisted nationwide.
“What is most worrisome with the Nigerian case is that the electricity to be supplied is inadequate.”
Consequently, OPS appealed to the federal government to suspend the tariff hike to stop an unprecedented downturn in the productive sector of the economy.
Earlier, Nigerians, Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and other organisations have called for a reversal of the tariff hike.
