Benin Republic and Togo have accrued debts of $8.84 million to Nigeria for electricity usage in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC disclosed this in a report detailing payments made by both domestic and international customers for electricity services rendered during that period.

The report highlights that Nigeria’s six international bilateral customers—who are supplied by Gencos—paid a total of $5.21 million against an outstanding invoice of $14.05 million, yielding a remittance performance of 37.08%. Notable debts include:

– Paras-SBEE (Benin) owes $2.65 million.
– Paras-CEET (Benin) owes $1.64 million.
– Transcorp-SBEE (Ughelli) in Benin has paid $1.71 million of its $3.59 million invoice.
– Transcorp-SBEE (Afam 3) paid $0.90 million of its $1.2 million invoice.
– Odukpani-CEET in Togo owes $2.37 million.

However, Mainstream-NIGELEC was the only international customer to fully settle its $2.60 million invoice in the same period.

Domestic bilateral customers, meanwhile, paid N1.25 million of the N1.98 million owed, achieving a 63.36% remittance rate.

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Notably, some customers made additional payments for outstanding invoices from prior quarters, including Paras-CEET, Paras-SBEE, and Transcorp-SBEE, who collectively paid $2.98 million for past dues.

Domestic customers such as NDPHC-Weewood, North South/Star Pipe, Taopex, and Trans-Amadi also contributed N135.81 million toward outstanding balances.

In a concerning trend, Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and its host community did not make any payments on their outstanding invoices of N1.27 billion and N0.11 billion for Q4 2024, continuing a history of non-payment.

The NERC has urged relevant government authorities to intervene in this ongoing issue.

The NERC also reported that electricity distribution companies in Nigeria, DisCos, collected a total of N509.84 billion in Q4 2024, representing 77.44% of the N658.40 billion billed.

This marks an improvement in collection efficiency compared to Q3 2024, where the DisCos collected N466.69 billion out of N626.02 billion, achieving a 74.55% collection rate.

Crediblenewsng.com