Niger, Benin Republics owe Nigeria N15.5bn in electricity bills

NIGER AND BENIN RE PUBLICS — two of the international customers Nigeria supplies electricity to daily — are yet to pay the country about N15.5 billion for electricity supplied to them in parts of 2018 and early 2019, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed.

The NERC said in its first quarter (Q1) 2019 report of operations in Nigeria’s electricity industry, that both countries owed N12.8 billion to Nigeria for power supplied to them in January, February and March 2019; as well as a balance of N2.784 billion for their October, November and December 2018 supplies.

The commission also stated in another document containing the outcome of a meeting it recently held with operators in the power industry that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has indicated the terms and conditions under which it would disburse a N600 billion intervention facility it freshly initiated for power distribution companies (Discos).

Historically, Niger and Benin Republics, which get at least 300 megawatts (MW)

of electricity from Nigeria everyday, have defaulted in prompt payments for such supplies.

In 2018, Nigeria reportedly threatened to disconnect both countries from its supply for their rising debts to her power sector. It also indicated it would negotiate fresh supply terms with them to reflect the operational realities in her privatised power market.

According to NERC in the Q1 2019 report, the total billing to electricity consumers by the 11 Discos rose to N182.8 billion in the first quarter of 2019 but only an aggregate of N116.9 billion was collected by the Discos.

It explained that the figure represented a 64.1 per cent collection efficiency by the Discos, and a 4.1 percentage point decrease from the last quarter of 2018.

NERC equally stated that the level of collection efficiency during the quarter under review indicated that a sum of N3.6 out of every N10 worth of energy sold during the first quarter of 2019 remained uncollected as and when due.

It therefore noted that the severity of the liquidity challenge in the sector was further reflected in the settlement rate of energy invoices issued by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and Market Operations (MO) department of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to Discos, as well as the payment by special and international customers.