Importance Of Electricity in Nigeria Business Environment
With the many events surrounding the Nigerian business environment one can argue that the business environment is really not conducive to make a business thrive, that is if one will have to put into consideration all of the current trend.
However, this might not be the case when considered in general terms. Individually, there are probably business men who are currently thriving. This is in no way an attempt to downplay the hostile environment that has made a lot of businesses to shut down and leave the country.
Electricity In Nigeria
Since the days of ancient Greek, or say 17th or the 18th when electricity was somewhat invented and mankind started using electricity, it has become an integral part of human development. It accelerates production, scientific researches can attest to this. It now becomes worrisome that Nigeria as a nation is still struggling to cope with the generation of power which will be enough to power businesses as well as households.
Price of Power In Nigeria
It is no longer news that power generation has been a difficult project to execute by the government, even when government took loans to have this sector up and running, it is even worse that private firm can’t even partner with the government to have this long-lasting issue settled. Things have changed a little bit, now we have a company known as Geometric Power Limited, a $800 million project with the capacity to generating 181 megawatts of power and has been reported to have been powering at least half of Abia State. The price of power in Nigeria is expensive. When you consider the cost of setting up the power generation plant price in Aba, Abia state, you can estimate that the average cost of power there will ordinarily not be the same as those who are still somehow hooked to the national grid. I believe the more constant power is distributed the higher the price will be.
Importance of Electricity in Nigeria
Things are tough on businesses, with taxes here and there. A significant increase in tariff was made a while ago, this made a lot of small and medium businesses to close shop. This states a significant importance electricity is to Nigerian businesses. Recently the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has stated that it will continuously adjust the tariff for its clients, this is some kind of goodwill to the customers who are somehow stretched that their businesses now operate on lean resources.
Power supply in Nigeria has been hectic to say the least, with the promised downward review of the tariff, customer are now going to pay N206.80 per kWh which was originally charged at N225/kWh for Band A customers. Band A customers are those who enjoy bulk of the power distributed to the customer.
Nigeria Power Generation Capacity Today
Currently, the national grid can only boast of generating less than 4000 Mega Watt. However, the federal government now have plans of possible power generation increase. The plan is to increase power generation from less than 4000 Mega Watts to at least 6000 Mega Watts by the end of this year.
In my conclusion, I feel the government of the day should truly privatize the power sector of the country and allow companies similar to Geometric Power Limited. This way, the government will only have to regulate the prices while the private sector control power generation.