President Bola Tinubu on Friday signed the amended Electricity Act of 2024 into law, News About Nigeria reports.
The bill, which has now been signed into law, was sponsored by the lawmaker representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos State, Babajimi Benson, and passed by the House of Representatives on July 27, 2023.
Following that of the House of Representatives, the Senate passed the bill on November 14, 2023, before it was signed into law.
According to the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who made this known in a statement, the amended electricity bill is geared towards improving the lives of Nigerians.
In the statement titled, ‘President Tinubu assents to Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill,’ the Presidency explained that the amended Electricity Bill would be able to address the development and environmental concerns of host communities.
The statement further revealed that, to achieve this, in this amended electricity bill, it is mandatory that five percent of revenue generated yearly be channelled towards the growth and development of these host communities.
The statement partly reads, “The Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, seeks to address the development and environmental concerns of host communities and sets aside five percent of the actual annual operating expenditures of power-generating companies from the preceding year for the development of their respective host communities.”
The bill further holds that the funds that would be set aside for the development of host communities must be received, managed, and administered by a reliable and reputable “trustee/manager to be jointly appointed by the respective GENCO and their host community.”
