The Republics of Benin and Niger have
paid $10.1m as electricity bill to Nigeria to avert being disconnected
from their power source in Nigeria after the Federal Government
threatened to disconnect debtors.....
It was also learnt that the countries
made the payment through their respective power firms, with NIGELEC of
the Republic of Niger paying $3.79m, while the Community Electric du
Benin of the Republic of Benin remitted $6.32m to Nigeria’s electricity
market.
On July 11, 2018, The PUNCH reported
that President Muhammadu Buhari decided to join operators in the power
sector in calling on international customers receiving electricity from
Nigeria to either pay their bills or be disconnected.
Nigeria sells power to the Republics of
Togo, Niger and Benin, and classifies the West African countries as
international customers.
Officials at the Federal Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing told our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday
that the international customers, paying for the power received from
Nigeria in dollars, owed the country, a development that had increased
the financial indebtedness to Nigeria’s power generation companies.
To avert being disconnected, it was
gathered on Thursday that Benin and Niger made some payments and that
the payment by both countries was disclosed to operators in Nigeria’s
electricity industry at the August 2018 power sector stakeholders’
meeting by the Market Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of
Nigeria.
This was also confirmed in a report that
was presented to stakeholders at the meeting by the MO, which was
obtained by our correspondent from the FMPWH.
On its dashboard on the summary of
energy delivery in the month of June 2018, the MO stated that energy
delivered to international customers and Ajaokuta Steel was 229,487.29
megawatts/hour.
Under bilateral trading, it stated that
the quantum of energy sent out by power generation companies was
104,861.92MWh, while energy delivered to bilateral customers was
95,939.31MWh.
Figures on the dashboard showed that
indigenous power distribution companies, as always, got the highest
quantum of energy, 2,355,623.4MWh, from the Gencos in the month under
review.
The MO further stated that part of the
foreign exchange inflows from international customers had been disbursed
to service providers in Nigeria’s power sector.
The indebtedness of international
customers was also confirmed by the Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in July, who, however, revealed that Buhari
was working hard to ensure that the electricity debts by the country’s neighbors were cleared.
Fashola had also directed the Nigerian
Bulk Electricity Trading Company to go ahead and collect its money from
the international customers.
He said, “We issued disconnection
notices and that is why I’m asking the NBET to go and collect your money
because we have duties, obligations and international agreements with
them as brother and sister nations.
“But that does not mean they will not
pay us if they are defaulting. So, we have issued letters to them to pay
their bills, and from time to time, they pay.
“There was a time one head of state came
to visit President Buhari and little did I know that the real reason he
came was to come and tell him that the (power) sector had issued a
notice of disconnection to his country. And you may be interested to
know that President Buhari simply told him to go and pay, otherwise we
will disconnect you because we are also paying at home.”
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