A total of N267.86 billion was paid in electricity bills by consumers in the second quarter of this year, according to data released by the Federal Government on Monday.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission made this disclosure in its recent report for the second quarter of 2023, which also revealed how effectively power distribution firms collected payments during the review period.
According to the report:
“The total revenue collected by all Discos in 2023/Q2 was N267.86bn out of N354.61bn billed to customers. This translates to a collection efficiency of 75.54 per cent, which represents an increase of 6.79pp (basic points) when compared to 2023/Q1 (68.75 per cent).
“The increase in collection efficiency can be attributed to the increased metering by Discos and the implementation of various collection campaigns for improved remittance by post-paid customers.”
Market Remittance
The NERC report noted that in 2023/Q2, the total upstream invoice that Discos was obligated to pay was N194.69 billion, made up of N154.04 billion for generation costs from NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading) and N40.65 billion for transmission and administrative services provided by the market operator.
“Out of this amount, the Discos collectively remitted a total sum of N185.36bn (N152.48bn for NBET and N32.88bn for MO) with an outstanding balance of N9.32bn. This translates to a remittance performance of 95.21 per cent in 2023/Q2 compared to the 67.43 per cent recorded in 2023/Q1,” the regulator said.
Remittance by Special and Cross-Border Customers
The regulator indicated that in 2023/Q2, only Transcorp-SBEE made a payment of $1.43m against an invoice of $2.13m issued for services delivered in 2023/Q2.
It said that three additional overseas clients failed to pay the MO’s $11.97 million invoice for services supplied in 2023/Q22.
It was revealed that bilateral clients paid a total of N816.66m against a total invoice of N2,845.08m issued by MO for services performed in 2023/Q23.
Data from the analysis revealed that, notwithstanding improvements made by the Discos in their payments to the power market, international electricity users in Nigeria defaulted significantly over the review period.
cc: Punch Ng
