The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Kano and Jigawa branches, have appealed to the federal government to eliminate the disparity between their cost of electricity and what their counterparts in Lagos pay.
The two branches in a joint statement on Monday noted that they now paid about N13 per KWA more than their counterparts in Lagos, a development they said had resulted in higher costs of manufactured products in Kano than those manufactured in Lagos.
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The statement was signed by Alhaji Musa Adamu, Chairman of Sharada/Chalawa branch and Alhaji Sani Hussaini Saleh, Chairman of Bompai/Jigawa branch.
They said that paying more than their counterparts and also more than commercial and residential consumers “negatively contradicts the effort of the federal government to change the Nigerian economy from dependence on oil to industrial base”.
They, therefore, recommended that the federal government should make efforts to “unify tariff charges all over the country by increasing the tariff in Lagos to be the same with other regions to balance up competitiveness among manufacturing companies in the country.”
As an alternative, they recommended the creation of the Electricity Equalisation Fund (EEF), as it existed in the petroleum sector where the price of petrol was the same all over the country through the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF).
Kano and Jigawa are under the area of coverage of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCo), while Lagos is under Eko Electricity Distribution (EKEDP) and Ikeja Electric.
