Benin Republic, Togo Owe Nigeria $8.84 Million For Q4 2024 Electricity Consumption

Benin Republic and Togo owe Nigeria a combined total of $8.84 million for electricity consumed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed.

In a recent report, NERC outlined the payment remittances made by both domestic and international bilateral customers, as well as special customers, following invoices issued by the Market Operator in Q4 2024.

The report highlighted that six international bilateral customers, who are supplied electricity by Generation Companies (Gencos) in Nigeria, collectively paid $5.21 million against a cumulative invoice of $14.05 million, resulting in a payment performance of just 37.08 percent.

These international customers included Paras-SBEE in Benin Republic ($2.65m); Paras-CEET also in Benin ($1.64m); Transcorp-SBEE (Ughelli) in Benin paid $1.71m out of $3.59m; Transcorp-SBEE (Afam 3) paid $0.90m out of its $1.2m invoice; Odukpani-CEET in Togo owes $2.37m.

Notably, only Mainstream-NIGELEC, another international customer, paid the full amount of $2.60 million, meeting their invoice without any shortfall.

The report also showed that Nigeria’s domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of ₦1.25 million against the ₦1.98 million invoice issued to them. This resulted in a 63.36 percent remittance performance.

It was noted that some customers had made payments toward outstanding invoices from previous quarters, including Paras-CEET, which paid $0.98 million; Pars-SBEE, which paid $0.7 million; and Transcorp-SBEE, which paid $1.3 million.

Additionally, the Market Operator (MO) reported receiving payments from domestic bilateral customers toward outstanding invoices from previous quarters, including NDPHC-Weewood: ₦21.17 million, North South/Star Pipe: ₦11 million, Taopex: ₦83 million and Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI): ₦20.74 million

The NERC also pointed out that the special customer, Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd, along with its host community, failed to make any payments toward its 2024/Q4 invoices, which total ₦1.27 billion (NBET) and ₦0.11 billion (MO).

“This continues a longstanding trend of non-payment by this customer,” the report stated, urging the relevant Federal Government authorities to intervene in the matter.

In terms of revenue, Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCos) generated a total of ₦509.84 billion in Q4 2024, which accounts for 77.44 percent of the ₦658.40 billion billed to customers during the period.

This represents an improvement in collection efficiency compared to Q3 2024, where the DisCos collected ₦466.69 billion out of a billed ₦626.02 billion, resulting in a collection efficiency of 74.55 percent.

“The 77.44 percent collection efficiency recorded in Q4 2024 is an increase of 2.89 percentage points compared to the 74.55 percent recorded in Q3 2024,” NERC stated.