Nigeria’s international electricity customers did not make any payment to the Market Operator (MO) out of the $14.19 million electricity bill in the first quarter of 2024.
This is according to the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) report for the first quarter of 2024 which stated that none of the four international customers outside the country made any payment.
Nigeria sells electricity to neighbouring countries such as Benin Republic, Niger and Togo.
Furthermore, the report noted that similar to the international bilateral customers, the bilateral customers within Nigeria still did not make any payment of the N1.86 billion billed in the quarter.
The report states, “In 2024/Q1, none of the four (4) international bilateral customers serviced by the MO made any payment against the $14.19 million invoice issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1. Similarly, none of the bilateral customers within the country made any payment against the cumulative invoice of N1,860.11 million issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1”
The report also states that both local and international bilateral electricity customers made payments for previous quarters owed. It noted that the 2 international bilateral customers paid around $5.19 million while 8 bilateral customers within Nigeria paid around N505.71 million.
Discos’ remittance performance in Q1
In the first quarter of 2024, Distribution Companies (DisCos) were billed a total of N114.12 billion for upstream services, which included N65.96 billion for generation costs and N48.16 billion for transmission and administrative services.
The DisCos collectively paid N110.62 billion, leaving an outstanding balance of N3.50 billion. This resulted in a remittance performance of 96.93%, a significant improvement from the 69.88% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
What you should know
Last year, the federal government reported that international electricity consumers failed to pay approximately $51.26 million to Nigeria for electricity exported to them from the country.
However, in May, the Federal Government mandated system operators in the Nigerian power industry to supply not more than 6% of total available grid generation per hour to international customers or off-takers.
In a recent directive issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to electricity generation companies, the regulator criticized the practice of prioritizing international customers while limiting the offtake by distribution companies (Discos) during grid imbalances, calling it both inefficient and unfair.
Under the new order, electricity generation companies are required to allocate no more than 10% of their generation capacity to international off-takers over the next six months.