The Federal Government has faulted claims by the World Bank report which indicated that 78% of power consumers in Nigeria get less than 12 hours of daily electricity supply.
The government in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Mr. Ahmad Rufai Zakari, in Abuja, said it was unclear what empirical evidence the World Bank used to arrive at the figures, insisting that power distribution to consumers is steadily improving. Zakari while responding to the Power Sector Recovery Programme Opinion Research Fact Sheet released by the World Bank on Friday said it is inaccurate to make a blanket statement that 78% of Nigerians have less than 12 hours daily access. He argued that empirical evidence from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that only 55% of citizens connected to the grid are in tariff bands D and E which are less than 12 hours supply.
Zakari also kicked against aspects of the World Bank report which claimed that 58 percent of electricity consumers in the country do not have meters to measure electricity use, dismissing the data as unverifiable. “It is unclear who did this survey and what the timeframe is. All citizens that have gotten free meters report they are happy about the reform trajectory.