Kayode Olanrewaju 
- Current model of Band A for institutions can’t work, should be reversed –Stakeholders
- There’s need to go back to the drawing board –UNILAG VC
As EWAN lowered the curtains on its one day summit, attention has again been drawn to huge debt burden confronting the nation’s educational institutions, research institutes and others, due to hike in electricity tariffs, which, if not addressed, may finally cripple the institutions
Overview
These are not the best of times for the nation’s educational institutions – universities, research institutes and other institutions. This is as these institutions and research institutes, teaching hospitals are under intense heat of the burden of high electricity tariffs slammed on the institutions by the various Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) across the country.
Following the unresolved controversies trailing the arbitrary new tariffs, Nigeria’s academic institutions and teaching hospitals have been at loggerheads with electricity distribution companies. Meanwhile, the new tariffs which in the last few months have raised concerns among educational institutions and other critical stakeholders, has also caused palpable apprehension in the system due to disruption of power supply to campuses.
From public to private universities, polytechnic, colleges of education, teaching hospitals, as well as research institutes/centres, among others, it is the same story of woes as they recount the dilemma they face monthly in paying the high electricity bills.
Painting the pathetic situation confronting the education institutions and research centres resulting from the nagging issue of high power tariffs, stakeholders have cried out over the need for constant and regular power in the laboratories for research, as some research have the tendency to lose their potency due disruption of power supply Indeed, based on this situation of incessant disruption to regular power supply, they further argued that foreign donors would show lack of interest in investing in research in the country, since research output from these institutions and research centres would be doubtful.
Piqued by this development, stakeholders lamented that, if educational institutions are not being served with constant electricity supply, engineering, sciences, and medical/health/research institutes would function optimally without electricity.
Following what they described as “extraneous high tariffs,” the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, was recently slammed with more than N2 billion as electricity bill; while the University of Lagos (UNILAG) owes over a billion naira, which resulted in the disruption of electricity to the university for many days.
In May 2024, Babcock University, a private university, located at Ilishan-Remo in Ogun State, was given a bill of N300 million, while LUTH/CMUL was given a N285 million bill for the same month. Similar situations led to the shutdown of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), while power was disconnected in Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). In fact, a court order once dispossessed ABU of its assets until the intervention of the Federal Government due to unpaid electricity bills.
However, stakeholders who bemoaned the situation, however, said that no nation can grow beyond the quality of its education, and there can be no meaningful education without stable power supply.
Summit
Given the anxiety posed by the high electricity tariffs in the educational institutions, and the need to address the nagging issue that impedes quality education delivery, the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN), the umbrella body of education reporters in the country, provided a platform for critical stakeholders to deliberate on the way out of the challenges.
According to the association, there cannot be any development in a country without quality education, and there cannot be quality education without regular supply of power/electricity to the institutions.
To set the stage for the discourse, EWAN at the one-day summit held at the Tolu Odugbemi Hall, UNILAG, gathered stakeholders, policymakers, players in the energy sector as well as academics to discuss pressing issues, particularly sustainable energy solutions and support for the education sector.
They include the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu; Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu; TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono; Managing Director/CEO, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan; and the Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof James Momoh; among other critical stakeholders in the power sector.
These policymakers were joined by at the summit with other critical stakeholders in the education and health sectors, including the ViceChancellor of UNILAG, Prof Folasade Ogunsola; YABATECH Rector, Dr Ibraheem Abdul; President of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Yomi Otubela; Dr. Dele Ashiru, the Chairman of ASUUUNILAG; as well as the national leadership of ASUP; Dr Akin Akinyele, who represented the President, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Dr Smart Olugbeko; among others, to develop a lasting solution to the power challenge facing institutions.
The theme of the summit, which had two panel sessions and moderated by a Veteran Broadcaster, Mrs Bimbo Oloyede, is “High Tariffs: Resolving Electricity Crisis in Nigeria’s Education Institutions;” while the other presentation on “Refocusing Support for Nigerian Tertiary Institutions” was delivered by the TETFund Executive Secretary. The paper looked at the needs of the tertiary institutions beyond the idea of physical infrastructure, since tertiary institutions globally are not about large expanses of land and gigantic buildings.
Setting the tone of the discourse, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, reiterated the significance of power in the development of a nation, and that power is critical to education.
On the high electricity tariffs, the Minister, who spoke through zoom platform, said with capital and overhead allocations to Nigerian tertiary institutions they cannot pay the current tariffs charged them by the electricity distribution companies.
As part of the Federal Government’s commitment, Sununu explained that the ministry is engaging the publicprivate partnership model to address the challenges, especially in the school systems.
The Chairman of EWAN, Mojeed Alabi assured participants that whatever recommendations that come out of the summit would be forwarded to the government for implementation.
Alabi, who stated that the summit was aimed at finding practical solutions to the energy challenges in the education sector, promised that the recommendations would be pursued with strong advocacy and strategies.
Alabi urged the government to demonstrate concerted effort and political will by investing in affordable power solutions across all levels of education, even as he also called for research-based approaches to solve the energy crisis plaguing tertiary institutions in the country.
Alabi, who noted that the summit was a forum to raise awareness on issues of critical importance, reminded the government that no quality education could take place without power/electricity.
“The theme of the summit is relevant in the face of current electricity disruption in institutions of learning due to high tariffs,
Institutions have no resources to pay such huge tariffs without allowing them to charge commensurable fees
because no educational institution could meet up with the new tariff, and where power is being rationed among the units and departments,” he stated.
Expressing dismay over what she described “as worrisome development,” the first key Speaker, Prof Folasade Ogunsola, the ViceChancellor University of Lagos (UNILAG), said the problems of electricity high tariffs is a topical issue in the country and has become existential threat to the education community. While restating that education is for development, and which has a social contract with the people, she insisted that no university can run or function without power.
The Vice-Chancellor, however, condemned the arbitrary move of the university and other educational institutions to Band A without the consent of the management of these institutions, saying the institutions have no resources to pay such huge tariffs without allowing them to charge commensurable fees.
Prof Ogunsola insisted that the current model of placing educational institutions and research centres on Band A, under which they are compelled and forced to pay humongous bills monthly, “could not work.” Dissatisfied with the model, the Vice-Chancellor lamented that the university’s internally generated revenue (IGR) is being used to pay the new tariffs and which is not sufficient to achieve this.
She also acknowledged that the energy crisis is a national issue that affects other sectors, and which must be addressed, saying education is fundamental and should be spared from the agony of unstable and expensive power supply which impedes the delivery of evidence-based knowledge to Nigerian children.
Prof Ogunsola regretted that today most universities and educational institutions are in debt due to accumulating power tariffs, resulting from their movement to Band A, which she insisted must be reversed.
She said: “There is something fundamentally wrong with this model that is moving institutions to Band A without their consent.
There is the need to go back to the drawing board. We are paying for the inefficiency of the producers/ distributors of power. “The current tariffs are expensive, especially for universities to pay.
Besides, it is expensive for universities, as an institution of learning, to generate autonomous electricity, but the government should provide and support the institutions.”
In one of the panel sessions, the Managing Director/ CEO, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, explained that educational institutions and research institutes/centres were moved to Band A in order for them to have regular power supply of about 20 hours daily, when compared with Band B to E, which are partially subsidised by the government with low tariffs.
Oduntan attributed the tariff hike to the current exchange rate, since Nigeria is not doing what it is supposed to do; rather the country relies on importation rather than a productive economy.
Communiqué
In its six-page communique, the summit restated that the platform served as an avenue for brainstorming and cross fertilization of ideas on strategies by the school community, government agencies and private players in the energy sector to fashion out lasting solutions to achieve energy availability, accessibility and affordability for the education sector.
The summit emphasised the need for a vibrant energy and power system in Nigeria as it is impossible for a society to achieve development without quality education, which needs a strong power system to thrive. It highlighted the plans of the Nigerian government towards addressing the electricity crisis in Nigeria, particularly how it affects the education sector, and by extension, the development of the country.
Participants reviewed the government’s plans to address electricity challenges, with special emphasis on the education sector, as well as related the Federal Government’s commitment to reform the energy industry so as to optimise the distribution of electricity to schools and universities through more concerted efforts to invest in sturdy alternative infrastructure.
In the panel session on “Resolving Electricity Crisis in Nigeria’s Education Institutions,” which focused on how the current electricity crisis continues to disrupt the daily operations of Nigeria’s educational institutions, the conversation revealed how crippling electricity tariffs and erratic power supply are taking a heavy toll on schools and universities that is nearly impossible to operate efficiently.
The situation, however, worsened when the Federal Government removed its 67 per cent subsidy on electricity supply, forcing these institutions that are grossly underfunded going into huge debts to keep the system open, with electricity bills being a major culprit in terms of high expenditure.
Added to this, the supply of electricity is unstable and unreliable, and to make matters worse, the universities are unable to invest in alternative energy solutions due to the high costs to set them up, and keep them running.
Therefore, if universities are to survive, they not only have to be strict with their energy management, but they will also need the support of the government to categorise educational institutions on more affordable bands. In the presentation on “Refocusing Support for Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions,” Echono stressed the need to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across all federal universities.
The goal, the summit highlighted, is for every graduate to be ICT literate, which is why ICT centres are being established on every federal university campus. On the energy sector, Echono emphasised that over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s power infrastructure relies on non-renewable energy sources, particularly oil and gas, which are becoming increasingly scarce.
Recommendations
At the end of the exercise, the summit recommended that educational institutions should invest in alternative energy sources, particularly solar power, to reduce reliance on the national grid and ensure a more consistent and affordable electricity supply.
It insisted also that the government must accelerate efforts to diversify Nigeria’s energy mix, moving away from overreliance on oil and gas, and that greater investment in renewable energy sources is crucial for long-term sustainability with policies aimed at making renewable energy more accessible to schools.
Similarly, the summit suggested that urgent steps must be taken to reduce energy losses, which currently account for 40-60 per cent of generated power, but added that this could be achieved through improved infrastructure and better management practices to ensure that available energy is used more efficiently in schools and universities.
Participants called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to implement policies, such as specialised tariffs, that lower costs for educational institutions in recognition of their important role in national development.
“Educational institutions and energy providers should forge strong and mutually-benefitting public-private partnerships that could facilitate the development of cost-effective solutions that meet the specific energy needs of educational institutions,” the summit said.
Accordingly, it was recommended that the energy sector should be opened up to more competition to break monopoly, in order to increase efficiency and lower associated costs similar to what obtains in the telecommunications industry.
It, however, stressed the need for awareness campaigns on energy conservation which should be launched to sensitise education stakeholders and the general public on the importance of cutting energy losses in pursuit of a sustainability culture in educational institutions.
Apart from these, the summit called on TETFund to invest in local training hubs and equipment to combat the ever-consistent brain drain in the country, while only fields where local training capacity is lacking should require sponsorships abroad.
Thus, universities, it recommended, should focus on building more compact, business-oriented campuses that allow efficiency in the use of the available energy.
To bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and context-specific practical applications, lecturers from federal universities as proposed may take their sabbatical leaves in the private sector as part of established academia-industry partnerships.
Meanwhile, it also suggested that federal universities should be equipped with ICT training centres to make sure that Nigerian graduates are sufficiently ICT literate to compete in the global workforce.
