International bilateral customers from countries such as Niger, Benin and Togo made a total payment of $50.36 million to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) for electricity distribution in 2023.
This is contained in the 2023 annual report and account from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), seen by Nairametrics on Tuesday.
The report shows that these three customers received an invoice of $53.55 million in the same year, making the payment a 94.04% remittance performance in the same year.
These customers are:
- Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique (Benin Republic);
- Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (Togo);
- Societe Nigerienne d’electricite (Niger).
Domestic Bilateral Customers
Furthermore, NERC data also indicate that as of 2023, NESI has a total number of 19 active domestic bilateral customers.
Extending beyond the three foreigner, a total of nineteen domestic bilateral customers were active throughout the year.
The overall invoicing for these nineteen customers reached a significant N10,320.84 million, but the payment performance was comparatively lower. These customers made payments totaling N8,766.15 million, corresponding to a remittance performance of 84.94%.
While this figure shows that the customers managed to remit a substantial portion of what they were billed, it still left an outstanding balance of 15.06%, a notable gap in full remittance.
Breakdown:
Three Key International Bilateral Customers:
- Invoice: $53.55 million
- Payment: $50.36 million
- Remittance Performance: 94.04%
Nineteen Active Domestic Bilateral Customers:
- Invoice: N10,320.84 million
- Payment: N8,766.15 million
- Remittance Performance: 84.94%
This comparison highlights that while the remittance rate among the top three customers was near perfect, the broader group of nineteen bilateral customers experienced more challenges in meeting their payment obligations.
What you should know
Last year, the Federal Government reported that international electricity consumers owed Nigeria approximately $51.26 million for electricity exported to them from the country.
In May, the Federal Government issued a mandate to system operators in the Nigerian power industry, directing them to supply no more than 6% of total available grid generation per hour to international customers or off-takers.
Recently, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued a directive to electricity generation companies, criticizing the prioritization of international customers while limiting offtake by distribution companies (Discos) during grid imbalances. NERC described this practice as both inefficient and unfair.
Under the new directive, electricity generation companies must allocate no more than 10% of their generation capacity to international off-takers for the next six months.
