Amid Increasing Tensions between Nigeria and its Northern neighbor, Niger Republic.
An Official Report reveals that the Indebtedness of Niger, Togo, and Benin Republic to Nigeria for Electricity supply has surged to $16.11 million (approximately N12.60 billion) during the first quarter of 2023 (Q1’23).
This Development coincides with a decline of 32.55 percent in Revenue remittances from the Distribution Companies of Nigeria (DisCOs) to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), amounting to N170.59 billion, in Comparison to an Invoice of N252.92 billion Issued in the first quarter.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) outlined these findings in its Q1’23 Report.
Based on an International treaty, Nigeria provides Electricity to neighboring Nations such as Benin Republic, Togo, and Niger.
As detailed in the Report, the Electricity Value mentioned was sold to four Firms across these three Countries.
The report states: “The Firms are Paras-SBEE and Transcorp-SBEE both from the Benin Republic; Mainstream-NIGELEC from Niger; and Odukpani-CEET from Togo.
“None of the under-listed International Customers made any payment against the Cumulative $16.11 million invoice Issued to them in Q1’23; Paras-SBEE ($3.46 million), Transcorp-SBEE ($3.85 million), Mainstream-NIGELEC ($5.48 million) and Odukpani-CEET ($3.32 million).
“Market operations (MOs) Issued Invoices to all the eight Bilateral Customers in the NESI in Q1’23, which amounted to N842.38 million.
During the quarter, only North-South/Star Pipe made a Remittance of N15.38 million against an Invoice of N24.69 million Issued to them.
This means that for the period, the Cumulative remittance performance of Bilateral Customers was 1.83 percent.”
NERC elucidated that the failure of International and Bilateral Customers to remit payments continues an ongoing trend, prompting MOs to consider enforcing Market rules to address the payment discipline demonstrated by various Market Participants.
Additionally, the report highlighted that “In Q1’23, the Cumulative upstream Invoice payable by DisCOs was N252.92 billion, consisting of N209.26 billion for generation Costs from NBET and N43.66 billion for Transmission and Administrative services by the MOs.
“Out of this amount, the DisCOs Collectively remitted a total sum of N170.59 billion (N141.51 billion for NBET and N29.04 billion for MOs) with an Outstanding balance of N82.33 billion.
This translates to a Remittance performance of 67.43 percent in Q1’23 compared to the 78.69 percent recorded in Q4’22. Relative to Q4’22, the Cumulative DISCOs under-remittance to the Market increased by N11.19 billion, which translated to a -6.16 pp reduction in the remittance performance in Q1’23.
