By Abiola Olawale
The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to recover a cumulative debt of $14.2 million owed by three African countries.
This is as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has officially written to the Electricity Market Operator (MO) to activate necessary market rules against Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Togo. But these efforts have reportedly failed that to address their debt obligations.
The New Diplomat reports that the MO administers the market rules of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and is therefore responsible for the administration of the electricity market and promoting efficiency in the market.
In the official circular address to the MO, the NERC expressed concerns that Nigeria’s neighbouring countries continued to stall the payment of electricity supplied to them.
The commission said the $14.2 million (about N21.3 billion) cumulatively owed by the three African countries is the figure for Q1, 2024 alone.
The debtor countries are Niger Republic, through its power generation and transmission utility, NIGELEC; Benin Republic, through Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE)and Togo, through its power utility firm, the Togo Electric Energy Company (CEET).
The regulator in the circular stated: “None of the international bilateral customers being supplied by Generation Companies (Gencos) in the NESI made payment against the cumulative invoice of $14.19 million issued by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1.
“As indicated in previous reports, the commission expects the MO to invoke the provision of the market rules to curtail the payment indiscipline being exhibited by local and international bilateral customers,”.
However, NERC stated that during the period, some bilateral customers (both local and international) made payments for outstanding MO invoices from previous quarters. It stated that cumulatively, a total of $5.96 million was paid by two international customers from the backlog of debts.
“The special customer (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community) did not make any payment towards the N1.27 billion Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) and N0.09 billion (MO) invoices received in 2024/Q1.
“This continues a longstanding trend of non-payment by this customer and the commission has communicated the need for intervention on this issue to the relevant federal government authorities.
“A continuation of the non-payment may trigger total disconnection from the grid,” it added.
