- International customers had a remittance performance of 0 per cent to the market operator in the first quarter of 2023.
- Only one bilateral customer paid part of the invoice issued by the market operator.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in its 2023 quarterly report, disclosed that Nigeria’s international electricity customers, Togo, Benin Republic and Niger, failed to remit $16.11 million for electricity consumed in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.
As highlighted in the report, international customers had a remittance performance of 0 per cent to the Market Operator (MO) in Q1 2023. According to NERC, the international customers include Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE) of Benin Republic (Paras-SBEE and Transcorp-SBEE), Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) (Odukpani-CEET) and NIGELEC- electric power generation and transmission utility in Niger (Mainstream-NIGELEC).
The data showed that in the first quarter of 2023, Paras-SBEE, Transcorp-SBEE, Mainstream-NIGELEC, and Odukpani-CEET received invoices of $3.46 million, $3.85 million, $5.48 million and $3.32 million respectively from the market operators and made no remittance.
As disclosed in the report, the market operator issued an invoice of ₦842.38 million to all eight bilateral customers in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) in Q1 2023. Of all the bilateral customers, only North South/Star Pipe made a remittance. The regulator added that special customers such as Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community did not make any payment towards the ₦0.38 billion (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading) and ₦0.08 billion (MO) invoices received in Q1 2023.
“None of the underlisted international customers made any payment against the cumulative $16.11 million invoice issued to them in 2023/Q1; Paras-SBEE ($3.46 million), Transcorp-SBEE ($3.85 million), Mainstream-NIGELEC ($5.48 million) and Odukpani-CEET ($3.32 million). The MO issued invoices to all the eight (8) bilateral customers in the NESI in 2023/Q1 which amounted to ₦842.38 million. Out of ₦842.38 million invoice issued, only North South/Star Pipe made a remittance of ₦15.38 million against its invoice of ₦24.69 million. This means that for the period, the cumulative remittance performance of bilateral customers was 1.83%,” the report revealed.
NERC stated that the non-remittance by international and bilateral consumers is a continuous trend highlighted in the past quarterly reports, adding that this trend should prompt the MO to invoke the provision of the market rules to curtail the payment indiscipline exhibited by the various market participants.