The Republic of Benin, Niger Republic and Togo made no payment for the electricity supplied to them from Nigeria in the second quarter of 2021, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said.

In its just released Second Quarter Report 2021, the NERC stated that the power firms of the three nations and some other special customers were issued a total bill of N770m by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company and the Market Operator of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

It, however, noted that nothing was paid by the neighbouring countries and other special customers for the power supplied to them from Nigeria during the period.

The neighbouring countries’ power firms 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, in Togo Republic.

The commission said, “During the quarter under review, NBET and MO issued a total of N0.77bn in respect of energy sold by NBET and services rendered by MO to the special (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and other bilateral customers) and international customers (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 so that they will resume the settlement of their bills in full.”

On the performance of distribution companies in Nigeria with respect to the payment of electricity sold to them by the NBET, the power sector regulator stated that the firms did not pay up all their bills.

“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 per cent.

“This represents a 1.78 percentage point decrease from the final settlement rate recorded in the first quarter of 2021.”

The NERC stated that apart from Eko Disco, none of the other Discos met their expected minimum remittance thresholds to NBET in the quarter under review.

It stated that overall, the total Disco remittance to NBET was 76 per cent of expected total for the quarter, as the average aggregate remittance performances to MO and NBET decreased by 1.78 percentage points from 51.88 per cent in first quarter 2021 to 50.1 per cent in the second quarter.

“Discos remittance performance level ranged from 10.51 per cent (Yola) to 63.69 per cent (Eko) for NBET and 28.76 per cent (Yola) to 99.88 per cent (Eko) for MO,” the NERC stated.

It added, “Ikeja recorded zero remittance to MO in the months of May and June 2021 as they wait to resolve Service Level Agreement dispute.”

On commercial performance, the report stated that the total billing to and collection from electricity consumers by all the 11 Discos stood at N268.97bn and N185.29bn respectively during the quarter under review, implying a collection efficiency of 68.89 per cent.

It said the level of collection efficiency indicated that as much as N3.11 out of every N10 worth of energy sold during the second quarter of 2021 remained uncollected from consumers.

“Thus, only a marginal improvement in the collection efficiency is noticeable over the 68.55 per cent recorded in the first quarter 2021,” the NERC stated. (Courtesy The PUNCH)

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