In a couple of days, electricity consumers will see their tariffs go up. This follows the review of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) for 2014.
As usual, the consumer has no say in the matter. This is why there is widespread disenchantment with the privatisation of the power sector. The honeymoon is now over and the hope raised that was raised that the succession to the greatly discredited “NEPA” will herald a new day has now been dashed.
If the consumer is of the opinion that the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector has brought with it a bountiful harvest he is justified to believe that electricity privatisation has proved disastrous.
For a start, the regulatory framework is (to be polite) inadequate. It is also anti-consumer protection. This is the second hike in six months. Both hikes have been disastrous. They have further impoverished the citizenry and dealt another mortal blow to the comatose “real sector.” It can hardly be otherwise. Increasing tariffs without an improvement of services is a rip-off.
The billing system is frankly anti-consumer. The government should have insisted on a timeframe for consumers to obtain pre-paid meters. This would have had a multiplier effect. For the meter manufacturing company in Zaria could have been empowered to roll out millions of pre-paid meters generating employment in the process. This has not been done. In contradistinction in Tanzania, 82 per cent of consumers have billing based on a pre-paid metering system. Here, the billing system process is so bizarre that the conventional wisdom calls it “crazy.” Unlike in telecoms, for the overwhelming majority who do not have pre-paid meters, the billing system is pure extortion. People are paying for services they never consumed.
This can only happen in a country which does not have pro-competition and anti-trust authorities. This is a contradiction-in-terms if we are actually aspiring to operate a “market-based” economy.
The time has come to go back to the drawing board. Electricity privatisation has not met expectations. The structural arrangement is clearly defective. The issue of the efficacy of the transmission configuration and the supply of gas has to be looked at and a roadmap constructed.
With privatisation not adding any value, the government must now return to the drawing board.