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Niger, Togo, Other Countries Owe Nigeria $14M Electricity Debts – NERC
Domestic bilateral customers also failed to pay against a cumulative invoice of N1,860.11 million issued by the MO for the same period.
Abuja, Nigeria- The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that several international clients, including Niger and Togo, owe Nigeria a total of $14.19 million in unpaid electricity bills for the first quarter of 2024.
The NERC report indicates that this debt is accumulated from neighboring countries and others dependent on Nigeria for a portion of their electricity supply. Despite efforts to recover these funds, the debt persists.
Last year, the federal government revealed that international electricity consumers owed Nigeria approximately $51.26 million. In response, the government directed in May that system operators limit electricity exports to international clients to no more than 6% of the total available grid generation per hour.
The NERC report notes that none of the four international customers, including the Benin Republic, Niger, and Togo, have made payments for the electricity provided to them. For the first quarter of 2024, these international customers did not settle the $14.19 million invoice issued by the Market Operator (MO).
Similarly, domestic bilateral customers also failed to pay against a cumulative invoice of N1,860.11 million issued by the MO for the same period.
However, payments were made for outstanding balances from previous quarters. Specifically, two international customers paid about $5.19 million, while eight domestic bilateral customers settled approximately N505.71 million.
In the first quarter of 2024, Distribution Companies (DisCos) were billed a total of N114.12 billion for upstream services, including N65.96 billion for generation and N48.16 billion for transmission and administrative services. The DisCos collectively paid N110.62 billion, leaving an outstanding balance of N3.50 billion, which translates to a remittance performance of 96.93%—a significant improvement from the 69.88% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The report also highlights a decrease in average available generation capacity across all power plants, which fell to 4,249.10MW in Q1 2024, marking a 13.68% decrease (or 673.16MW) from the 4,922.26MW in Q4 2023. This drop is attributed to reduced generation capacities at 17 of the 27 grid-connected power plants.
The average hourly generation of available units declined by 8.22% (or 364.25MWh/h), from 4,433.82MWh/h in Q4 2023 to 4,069.57MWh/h in Q1 2024. Total electricity generation also decreased by 9.21% (or 901.94GWh), from 9,789.87GWh in Q4 2023 to 8,887.93GWh in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to reduced generation capacities.