By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, report indicates that of the combined invoices of N882.73 billion for energy and administrative services issued by Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, NBET, and Market Operator, MO, only a total of N370.34 billion was settled as and when due by electricity distribution companies, DisCos, creating a total deficit of N512.39 billion (including tariff shortfall) in 2020.
This was contained in its Annual Reports and Accounts published on the Commission’s website.
According to the report, a comparative analysis of market invoice and remittance performance by DisCos in 2020 represented an average settlement rate per DisCo of 41.95 percent of the invoice.
This represented significant progress (+6.08 percentage points) when compared to the average settlement rate of 35.87 percent recorded in 2019. Ikeja and Yola DisCos had the highest and lowest settlement rates of 54.03 percent and 16.83 percent respectively in 2020.
The report also stated that in 2020, the international customers (i.e., Societe Nigerienne d’electricite – NIGELEC; Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique, SBEE, and Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo) received a total invoice of N16.31 billion (US$53.22 million) from MO and made a total payment of N10.45 billion (USD34.09 million) for the current and unpaid invoices for the services received from MO.
In contrast, no payment was made by the special customers (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community) in respect of the N0.93 billion and N0.15 billion energy invoices and service charges received from NBET and MO respectively in 2020, the report added.
On its operations, NERC reported that its income for the year was N14.24 billion while its total expenditure was N11.10 billion.
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