Joseph Bakare
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that the six international bilateral customers being supplied electricity by Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos) in the Nigerian electricity supply industry made a payment of $5.21 million against the cumulative invoice of $14.05 million issued by the Market Operator for services rendered in 2024/Q4, amounting to a remittance performance of 37.08 percent.
The information was obtained from the Q4, 2024 report by the market operator.
“Similarly, the domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of N1,252.58 million against the N1,977.02 million invoice issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q43,” the report stated.
The international companies are Paras-SBEE in the 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.
The NERC’s report showed that only Mainstream-NIGELEC cleared the entire $2.60 million invoice issued to the company by the market operator.
NERC added that the domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of N1.25 million against the invoice of N1.98 million issued to them by the market operator for services rendered in the last quarter of 2024, translating to 63.36 percent remittance performance.
“It is noteworthy that some bilateral customers (both domestic and international customers) made payments during 2024/Q4 for outstanding MO invoices from previous quarters. Paras-CEET, Pars-SBEE and Transcorp-SBEE made payments of $0.98m, $0.7m, and $1.3m, respectively, towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters.
“Similarly, the MO received N135.81 million from the domestic bilateral customers [NDPHC-Weewood: N21.17 million; North South/Star Pipe: N11 million; Taopex: N83 million; and Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI): N20.74 million] towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters,” it disclosed.
The regulator reports that the special customer, Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd., and the host community did not make any payment towards the N1.27 billion (NBET) and N0.11bn (MO) invoices received in 2024/Q4.
Additionally, the NERC also stated in the document that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Nigeria generated N509.84 billion in the last three months of 2024.
This represents 77.44 per cent of the N658.40 billion that was billed to customers within the fourth quarter of last year.
“The 77.44 per cent collection efficiency recorded in 2024/Q4 is +2.89 pp higher than the collection efficiency recorded in 2024/Q3,” the NERC said.