President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Gabriel Idahosa, even with the over 200 per cent hike in electricity tariff, companies still do not have access to public power and still cough out billions of naira monthly on alternative sources of energy to power their operations.

Idahosa said while the operators understand that removing subsidy on electricity supply may have been in line with attracting foreign investors to the sector with a cost-reflective tariff, they have also countless times advocated that the country subsidises production rather than consumption.

He said it was painful seeing businesses pay heavily for services they do not enjoy optimally and urged for an aggressive metering programme to cover 100 per cent of all consumers.

“Earlier in the year, Bloomberg, reported that ‘Nigeria has a woeful lack of generating capacity and part of the energy that is produced goes to waste because it can’t be distributed through the dilapidated grid. Electricity suppliers can’t charge cost-reflective tariffs and struggle to collect revenue due to inadequate metering, deterring new investment’. Beyond infrastructure provision, we need a sound regulatory and policy environment to attract more foreign investment into this sector,” he said.

He advised the government to create an environment that enables foreign investors to build renewable energy factories in Nigeria to upscale the country’s energy transition and reduce dependence on the national hydro grid, which has continued to crash at close intervals in recent months.

“We expect the federal government to show more commitment to patronising local meter manufacturers to boost local content development and foster growth in the power sector,” he said.