OLUFEMI Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has said that the House is considering a second stimulus bill that will provide Nigerians with free electricity supply for two months.
Gbajabimila disclosed this on Saturday after a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Ahmed Zainab, noting that the measures would help to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At a meeting today, between @nassnigeria and the Minister of Finance, @ZShamsuna and her team, I disclosed that @HouseNGR is considering a second Stimulus Bill that will provide Nigerians with free electricity supply for two months to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic pic.twitter.com/qVMQfJA3Ws
— Femi Gbajabiamila (@femigbaja) April 4, 2020
He noted that proposed stimulus bill will boost the economy through the informal sector adding that it would be considered immediately the House of Representatives reconvenes from the ongoing break.
The Speaker further disclosed that the House leadership had engaged the distribution companies (DISCos) in the last few days to work the details.
The proposed Bill will boost the economy through the informal sector and is to be considered immediately @HouseNGR reconvenes from its ongoing break.
The House leadership had engaged the Discos in the last few days to work out the details. pic.twitter.com/ssMmIjlVFO
— Femi Gbajabiamila (@femigbaja) April 4, 2020
It could be recalled The ICIR earlier published how National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) last Tuesday made a temporary U-turn on the date it initially set for a new electricity tariff to take effect, which made the Commission to direct the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) to present a comprehensive plan to realise the revenue requirements as well as strategies to provide Nigerians with stable power before June 30, 2021.
The was coming after NERC had earlier issued a directive for the commencement of new tariff on 1 April, 2020 but it stated in a new order with reference number: NERC/198/2020 “that due to complaints from the end-use customers such as poor service delivery, inadequate provision of prepaid meters, hours of guaranteed supply and the COVID-19 pandemic, the old date set at tomorrow is no longer valid.”
Samad Uthman is a multimedia journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He tweets @sarmerdk2 and can be shot through suthman@icirnigeria.org