The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed that Togo and Benin Republic owe Nigeria a total of $14.19 million for electricity supplied in the first quarter of 2024.
This information was disclosed in a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which highlighted the persistent issue of unpaid electricity bills by four international bilateral customers supplied by Nigerian power generating companies (GenCos).
According to the NERC report, the companies involved include Para-SBEE in Benin Republic, which owes $3.15 million; Transcorp-SBEE in Benin, with an outstanding debt of $4.46 million; Mainstream-NIGELEC in Togo, owing $1.21 million; and Odukpani-CEET in Togo, with a debt of $5.36 million.
NERC noted that none of these companies made any payments against the cumulative invoices issued by the Market Operator for services rendered during the first quarter of 2024. The report also highlighted that no remittances were made by local bilateral customers within Nigeria against the cumulative invoice of $1.88 million issued for services provided in the same period.
Despite the concerning non-payment, the report did mention that some payments were made during the quarter by both local and international customers towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters. “Cumulatively, a total of $5.96 million was paid by two international customers. Similarly, the Market Operator received N505.71 million from eight local bilateral customers as payment towards debts incurred before the first quarter of 2024,” the report indicated.
Expressing concern over the situation, NERC urged the Market Operator to enforce market rules to address the “payment indiscipline” observed among both local and international bilateral customers. This development follows earlier reports from May 2024, which revealed that international consumers had failed to remit about $51.26 million to Nigeria for electricity exported in 2023. The report further disclosed that the bilateral power consumers did not remit approximately N7.61 billion to the Nigerian power sector last year.
NERC condemned the ongoing issue, stressing that the Market Operator, a division of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) responsible for managing Nigeria’s power exports, must take decisive action to curtail the persistent payment defaults. An analysis of government data showed that international consumers failed to remit $16.11 million, $11.97 million, $11.16 million, and $12.02 million for electricity exported to them in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of 2023, respectively.
