{"id":60502,"date":"2025-02-04T15:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T15:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=60502"},"modified":"2025-02-04T15:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T15:03:21","slug":"nigerians-rich-enough-to-contend-with-electricity-hike-verheijen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/02\/04\/nigerians-rich-enough-to-contend-with-electricity-hike-verheijen\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerians Rich Enough to Contend with Electricity Hike \u2013Verheijen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Our Correspondent\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Presidential Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, has signaled that Nigerians are rich enough to foot an imminent 65% tariff increase underway.<\/p>\n<p>Verheijen suggested that wealthier Nigerians can absorb a potential electricity tariff hike, revealing that the N200 billion monthly subsidy primarily benefits the richest 25% of the population rather than those in real need.<\/p>\n<p>While clarifying reports of this imminent tariff hike, the Presidential Adviser did not deny a forthcoming hike but stressed that current tariffs only cover 65% of electricity supply costs, leaving the government to fund the difference.<\/p>\n<p>Her remarks signal a shift towards a targeted subsidy system, implying that wealthier Nigerians will soon bear the full cost of power consumption.<\/p>\n<p>She highlighted the government\u2019s Presidential Metering Initiative, which aims to reduce estimated billing and increase transparency, suggesting that a fairer pricing structure is being prepared.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, clearing debts owed to power companies is seen as a step to attract investment and improve electricity supply.<\/p>\n<p>Although Verheijen assured that reforms would protect vulnerable Nigerians, her statements indicate that a tariff increase is inevitable, with the government preparing wealthier citizens to shoulder the financial burden of electricity reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Our Correspondent\u00a0 Presidential Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, has signaled that Nigerians are rich enough to foot an imminent 65% tariff increase underway. Verheijen suggested that wealthier Nigerians can absorb a potential electricity tariff hike, revealing that the N200 billion monthly subsidy primarily benefits the richest 25% of the population rather than those in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":60503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60504,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60502\/revisions\/60504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}