Three international customers have failed to meet their obligations of over N770 million in respect of energy sold by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) and services rendered by the market operator in the second quarter of 2021.
The debtors include Societe Nigerienne d’electricite – NIGELEC, in Niger Republic; Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique – SBEE, in Benin Republic; and Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo – CEET, Togo.
As contained in the second quarter report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), no payment was made by the special customers (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community) in respect of the N450 million and N100 million market invoices received from NBET and MO respectively during the period.
“During the quarter under review, NBET and MO issued a total N0.77 billion in respect of energy sold by NBET and services rendered by MO to the special (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and other bilateral customers) and (Societe Nigerienne d’electricite – NIGELEC, Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique – SBEE and Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo– CEET).
“No payment was made by these customers during the quarter under review. It is hoped that as the economy of these customers improves post-COVID-19 lockdown they will resume the settlement of their bills in full,” it stated.
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Total revenue realised by the commission during the quarter was N5.30 billion, representing a 2.12 percent increase from N5.19 billion revenue realised in the preceding quarter, while the total (capital and recurrent) expenditure stood at N1.44 billion which is lower than the N 2.01 billion incurred during the first quarter of 2021.
On the performance of distribution companies in Nigeria with respect to the payment of electricity sold to them by NBET, the power sector regulator stated that the firms did not pay up all their bills, adding that apart from Eko Disco, none of the other Discos met their expected minimum remittance thresholds to NBET in the quarter under review.
“During the second quarter of 2021, a total invoice of N259.7bn was issued to the eleven Discos for energy received from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and for service charge by MO, out of which a sum of N130.11bn was settled, representing remittance performance of 50.11 percent. Revenues collected by eleven DisCos from customers stood at N185.29billion out of the total bill of N268.97billion billed to customers.
“The collection efficiency implies that for every N10.00 worth of energy billed to customers by DisCos in the 2021/Q2, approximately N3.11 still remained unrecovered from customers.
“Improvement in energy supply induces consumer’s willingness to pay thus improves collection efficiency. To sustain collection efficiency improvement and consequently improve market liquidity, he committed hours of service to each band under the service-based tariff regime and must be diligently monitored and enforced.
“The higher revenue recorded in 2021/Q2 was partly due to the recovery of outstanding licensing fees and the fund released from the statutory budget for capital projects,” it stated.
The report further shows that the average available generation capacity and total generation during the quarter were 5,472.1 MW and 8,909,911.6 MWh, respectively.
