The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities has called on the Federal Government to provide a concessionary electricity tariff rate for universities.
This appeal is based on the need to alleviate the financial burden of high power tariffs on these institutions.
Speaking in an interview with NewsNow on Saturday, Secretary to the CVCNU, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, explained that no university or any tertiary institution can afford such high tariff reportedly given to the University of Ilorin.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof Wahab Egbewole, has expressed concern over the institution’s monthly electricity bill which had skyrocketed from N70m to N230m per month, a situation he described as “unsustainable.”
Ochefu emphasised that although institutions planned to use solar energy, green solutions and others, however, the size of campuses and cost made them to rely on public source of electricity.
He said, “For the past ten years, universities have been trying to diversify energy consumption by promoting green energy solutions, such as solar, but the cost is significant. Consequently, we had to rely on the public power system, which has also become very expensive. The FG is not providing sufficient funds to support the public power bills.”The implication is that universities cannot cover these costs, and we can’t pass them on to users. Universities do not have the resources to meet these bills. We have told the government that there must be a concessionary rate for tertiary institutions, especially in the education sector.”You can’t treat the education sector like a business establishment. If they can’t give us a concessionary rate, they should increase funding so we can meet our needs.”