Electricity bills: International, bilateral consumers owe Nigeria N4.71bn

International and bilateral power consumers that get supply from Nigeria owe the country about N4.71bn, figures obtained on Sunday from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission showed.

It was gathered that the 10 international, bilateral and special power consumers of Nigeria failed to remit the sum within a period of six months, though efforts had been ongoing to get the debts settled.

The NERC revealed this in its first and second quarter reports of 2022, as it named the debtors to include Odukpani-CEET, Paras-SBEE, Ajaokuta Steel, and Mainstream/Inner Galaxy.

Others include Mainstream/KAM Industries, Mainstream/KAM Integrated, KAM Steel Shagamu, NDPHC/Sunflag, North South/OAU, and Mainstream/Adefolorunsho Ventures.

The commission pointed out that the indebtedness by the power firms were to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc and the power Market Operator.

It stated that in the first quarter, moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited failed to pay N0.45bn, while Odukpani-CEET did not remit $3.42m.

In the section on remittance by special and international customers, the commission stated that its summary indicated that “no payment was made by the special customer – Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community, in respect of the N0.38bn and N0.07bn market invoices issued by NBET and MO respectively in 2022/Q1.”

It added, “In the same period, bilateral customers, Paras-SBEE, Transcorp-SBEE, and Mainstream NIGERLEC received invoices of $2.72m, $2.74m and $4.61m from the MO and each remitted $2.72m (100 per cent), $2.74m (100 per cent), and $4.52m (98 per cent) respectively.

Credit : Punch News.