BREAKING: FG Approves 50% Electricity Subsidy For Hospitals

The Federal Government has approved a 50% subsidy on electricity consumption for hospitals across the country, a move aimed at reducing operational costs and alleviating the financial burden on patients.

This development was announced on Thursday following a commitment made by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to subsidize electricity for hospitals and universities, even those connected to Band-A feeders.

Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, confirmed the approval of the subsidy, saying the subsidy is intended to ease the financial pressures on public hospitals, thereby improving their ability to provide essential healthcare services without passing the full cost of electricity into patients.

Adelabu further clarified that the subsidy would be exclusively available to legitimate health and educational institutions, explicitly excluding private businesses operating within these facilities.

He reiterated that these private enterprises often charge their customers commercially and should not benefit from the government subsidy simply because they are located within the premises of health and educational institutions.

“We recognize that hospitals and educational institutions are essential social services.

“However, we cannot allow private businesses that operate within these institutions to exploit the subsidy for profit.

“Therefore, we have mandated a thorough metering of all entities within these institutions to ensure that only those directly related to healthcare and education benefit from the subsidy,” Adelabu stated.

The government has initiated a comprehensive data collection process to identify and meter all businesses within these institutions accurately.

This effort aims to ensure that the subsidy is applied correctly and that public funds are not used to subsidize private enterprises, which would result in unjust profits.