The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says that the cumulative invoice of $14.19m issued by the market operator for services rendered in the first quarter of 2024 to four foreign companies are yet to be settled.
The report by the NERC listed the foreign companies as Para-SBEE in Benin Republic ($3.15m), Transcorp-SBEE in Benin ($4.46m), Mainstream-NIGELEC in Togo ($1.21m), and Odukpani-CEET in Togo ($5.36m).
The NERC said that no remittances were made by bilateral customers within the two countries against the cumulative invoice of N1.86m issued to them by the market operator for services rendered in Q1 2024.
According to the Punch newspaper report on Thursday, some bilateral customers (both local and international customers) made payments during the quarter for outstanding Market Operator invoices from previous quarters.
“Cumulatively, a total of $5.96m was paid by two international customers. Similarly, the market operator received N505.71m from eight local bilateral customers as payment towards debts that were incurred pre-2024/Q1,” the report stated.
The commission also said it was expecting the market operator to invoke the provisions of the market rules to curtail what it called the payment indiscipline being exhibited by local and international bilateral customers.
It recalled that in May, it was reported that the international consumers failed to remit about $51.26m to Nigeria for electricity exported from Nigeria to power users in 2023, while the bilateral power consumers did not remit about N7.61bn to the Nigerian power sector in 2023.
NERC condemned the development, describing it as payment indiscipline that should be curtailed by the Market Operator, an arm of the Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN), which is the firm in charge of Nigeria’s power export.
GIK/APA