The Nigerian government may have traded off Nigerian citizens in the procurement of the $3.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government may have given as a condition of imposition of higher electricity tariff on Nigerians in 2021 seeking the $3.4bn emergency financial assistance recently approved for Nigeria. while negotiating the recent IMF loan.
It was disclosed that before the IMF Executive Board approved the Rapid Financing Instrument, Nigeria government had in the desperation to secure the loan from promised that Nigerians would pay full power cost-reflective tariff in 2021, which many suspect may imply further increase of electricity tariff because the government pays no subsidy on electricity tariff. Besides, electricity bills have been arbitrarily imposed beyond actual service delivery by providers.
The Federal Government was further disclosed to have promised the IMF to cap electricity tariff shortfalls to N380 billion in 2020.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has early in 2020 increased electricity tariff in Nigeria.