By NAOMI UZOR

The Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), said  the recent hike in tariff by the PHCN has not led to improvement in electricity supply,fsince the government’s  intention to meet the 6,000MW to 10,000MW has been difficult.. Hence businesses are still burdened with running on private generators.

In a review of the economy for the 4th quarter, the National President, NACCIMA, Dr. Ademola Ajayi, said NACCIMA is worried over the recent high tariff’ and the burden of private generators for businesses, adding that this has contributed as always to the high cost of doing business estimated at about 40 per cent.

“Real sector operators and citizens alike depend mostly on their own provision of alternative sources of electricity through generating plants.

“While we applaud President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent bold pronouncement in Islamabad, Pakistan during Nigeria’s moment of pride for performance at the D8 Summit, assuring Nigerians of a stable supply of electricity in major cities by the second quarter of 2013, we expect that adequate mechanism would be put in place in the implementation of the on-going power generation, transmission and supply. This will be a comforting though for business operators,” he said.

He said that NACCIMA wish to counsel that government with the private sector collaboration should not rest but intensify the commitment towards sustainable power supply of not less than 10,000MW by end of 2013, as well as make provisions for sufficient pre-paid  meters to consumers to ensure that every citizen pay his or her bills timely, while the era of crazy bills becomes a thing of the past.

On the issue of security, Ajayi said, that the chamber’s believe that the  security challenge facing Nigerians as a nation are not insurmountable if government and its agencies remain focused, committed and intensify on-going partnership efforts with the private sector and the citizens to move the country forward by making it a safe haven for all Nigerians and foreigners alike.