Suliat Lawal
The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce electricity tariffs for universities and teaching hospitals benefiting from its renewable energy projects, saying the move is necessary to sustain the infrastructure.
Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this on Wednesday at the unveiling of the state-owned Renewable Asset Management Company, RAMCO, in Abuja.
Tegbe said the government could no longer continue providing free electricity to beneficiary institutions after investing heavily in renewable energy infrastructure.
According to him, the new arrangement would ensure that the renewable energy assets remain functional and are properly maintained.
He said some universities had approached him to express appreciation after enjoying free electricity from the government for two years.
“Thank you; the pro bono is over. We are coming to commission, and you will pay tariff. The same thing with teaching hospitals,” the minister said.
Tegbe described the establishment of RAMCO as a new approach to managing public renewable energy assets, stressing that Nigeria had struggled for too long with unreliable electricity supply.
He said the country had developed a pattern of building public infrastructure without putting adequate systems in place to maintain the assets.
“It is a new dawn. We are very good at building public assets but poor at sustaining them. RAMCO offers a different model to renewable energy,” he said.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, backed the proposed tariff, saying beneficiary institutions must contribute to the sustainability of the facilities provided for them.
Aliyu said the Federal Government, through the REA, had deployed 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid power to 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals since 2017 under the Energising Education Programme.
He explained that the government needed to recover part of the value of the investment through electricity tariffs to ensure that the renewable energy infrastructure did not deteriorate.
“Government has funded this asset. REA has built them. Beneficiary institutions must contribute to sustaining them by paying for the electricity they consume,” Aliyu said.
The affected institutions include Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; and the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State, alongside three teaching hospitals.
The Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Health, Iziaq Adekunle Salako, were among dignitaries who attended the event.
The planned tariff regime is expected to mark a shift from the government-funded operation of renewable energy systems in public institutions to a model in which beneficiaries contribute to the cost of maintaining the facilities.
The government said the arrangement was aimed at protecting its investment in renewable energy and ensuring that the projects continue to provide electricity to critical public institutions.
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