NERC Flags Benin Republic, Togo for $14.19m Unpaid Power Debts

None of the four international bilateral customers being supplied by the power generation companies in the Nigerian electricity supply industry made payment against the cumulative invoice of $14.19m issued by the market operator for services rendered in the first quarter of 2024.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission revealed this in a report sighted by our correspondent.

The foreign companies are Para-SBEE in Benin Republic ($3.15m), Transcorp-SBEE in Benin ($4.46m), Mainstream-NIGELEC in Togo ($1.21m), and Odukpani-CEET in Togo ($5.36m).

NERC added that no remittances were made by bilateral customers within the country against the cumulative invoice of N1.86m issued to them by the market operator for services rendered in Q1 2024.

It, however, noted that some bilateral customers (both local and international customers) made payments during the quarter for outstanding Market Operator invoices from previous quarters.

“Cumulatively, a total of $5.96m was paid by two international customers. Similarly, the market operator received N505.71m from eight local bilateral customers as payment towards debts that were incurred pre-2024/Q1,” the report stated.

The commission said it was expecting the market operator to invoke the provisions of the market rules to curtail what it called the payment indiscipline being exhibited by local and international bilateral customers.

In May, it was reported that international consumers failed to remit about $51.26m to Nigeria for electricity exported from Nigeria to power users in 2023.

The Federal Government revealed this in the industry data showing the non-remittances by consumers.

Also, the bilateral power consumers did not remit about N7.61bn to the Nigerian power sector in 2023.

NERC condemned the development, describing it as payment indiscipline that must be curtailed by the Market Operator, an arm of the TCN, which is the firm in charge of Nigeria’s power export.

An analysis of the government’s industry data indicated that the international consumers failed to remit $16.11m, $11.97m, $11.16m, and $12.02m to Nigeria for the electricity exported to them in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of 2023, respectively.