The federal government has said 11 power distribution companies failed to remit a total of ₦208.8 billion to the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry in 2022.
According to records obtained from the power sector regulator, DisCos failed to remit a total of ₦208.8 billion in 2022.
The power distribution companies include Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Yola Discos. A breakdown of the debt shows that the sum of ₦69.94 billion, ₦58.3 billion, ₦31.3 billion, and ₦49.23 billion were owed in the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2022, respectively.
According to the Federal government agency tasked with the collection of remittances from the DisCos, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) the failure of the DisCos to remit the stated amounts during the period was due to the fact that the Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses recorded by the power firms went above the allowed threshold.
The DisCos are empowered to bill the consumers directly and also, collect payments for electricity bills on behalf of the power market. The collected bills are then remitted to the power market through another government arm – the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the Market Operator (MO) an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Data from NERC which shows the market remittance for Q1, 2022 revealed that DisCos received separate invoices from NBET and MO totaling ₦205.63 billion.
The power companies successfully paid a total sum of ₦135.69 billion leaving an outstanding balance of ₦69.94 billion owed in the first quarter of 2022. For Q2, 2022, DisCos received invoices worth ₦185.01 billion from NBET and MO. A total sum of ₦126.69 billion was successfully remitted leaving a balance of ₦58.32 billion.
In the third quarter of 2022, DisCos received a total invoice of ₦204.84 billion from NBET and MO and out of this amount, ₦173.55 billion was paid with an outstanding balance of ₦31.29 billion.
NBET and MO also sent out invoices to DisCos in Q4, 2022 totaling ₦231.01 billion. Out of this amount, a total of ₦181.78 billion was remitted leaving an outstanding balance of ₦49.23 billion.
