The federal government is considering regulatory actions to recover substantial debt from four African countries that have not addressed their electricity payment obligations.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has instructed the Electricity Market Operator (MO) to implement the necessary market rules to recover $14.2 million (approximately N21.3 billion) owed by these international customers in Q1 2024. The MO, responsible for administering market rules in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), oversees the electricity market and ensures its efficiency.
According to NERC’s Q1 2024 report, the beneficiary countries have failed to remit payments for electricity supplied by Nigeria. The debtor countries include Niger Republic, represented by its power utility NIGELEC; Benin Republic, through Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE); and Togo, served by the Togo Electric Energy Company (CEET).
The report highlights that none of these international customers have made payments against the cumulative invoice of $14.19 million issued by the MO for services rendered in the first quarter of 2024.
“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 report also stressed that no remittances were made by bilateral customers against the cumulative invoice of N1.86 billion issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1 but the MO received N505.71 million from eight local bilateral customers as payment towards debts that were incurred pre- 2024/Q1.
“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.
