SEO Riders:
- – Barth Nnaji urges gas price alignment with current market levels ($2.70–9/MMBtu) to ease strain on GenCos.
– Highlights that tariff system fails to cover industry costs, fuelling ₦1.1 trillion subsidies and growing sector debt.
– Advocates cost-reflective tariffs to restore liquidity, attract investment, and ensure power-sector sustainability.
At the Orient News Nigeria 2025 Conference held in Lagos on July 24, Prof. Barth Nnaji, Chairman of Geometric Power, called on regulators including NERC and NMDPRA to align Nigeria’s domestic gas pricing—currently pegged at $2.13/MMBtu—with actual market costs, which range from $2.70 to $9/MMBtu. He warned that the disparity between regulated and real gas prices is exacerbating liquidity problems across the power sector and contributing significantly to the ₦1.1 trillion electricity subsidy incurred in the first half of 2025—driven by mounting federal debt owed to GenCos and gas suppliers.
Nnaji further argued that current electricity tariffs are inadequate, failing to cover the dollar-denominated operational and maintenance costs of GenCos. He emphasized the urgent need for fully cost-reflective electricity pricing to ensure sector sustainability, reduce government reliance on subsidies, and attract private capital. According to him, only Band A consumers currently pay near-real tariffs, while Bands B–E depend on deep subsidies—leaving the sector financially unstable and vulnerable to repeated system failures without true cost alignment.
