Mohammed Shosanya
Niger,Togo, Benin Republic failed to remit $16.11 million for electricity consumed in the first quarter of 2023,the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC),has said.
The agency said in its first quarter report that international customers had a remittance performance of 0 per cent to the Market Operator (MO) in Q1 2023.
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).
According to the report,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.
The report also said,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.
“Of the ₦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 said.
The agency added that the non-remittance by international and bilateral consumers is a continuous trend highlighted in the past quarterly reports.
