The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that several neighbouring countries, including Benin and Togo, have failed to pay more than half of their electricity bills to Nigeria for power supplied during the second quarter of 2025.
According to NERC’s Q2 2025 Report, six international bilateral customers who receive power from Nigerian generation companies (GenCos) paid only $9.01 million out of a total invoice of $17.54 million issued by the Market Operator (MO), leaving an outstanding balance of $8.53 million. This represents a remittance performance of 51.33 per cent.
The report listed Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique (SBEE) of Benin, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) of Togo, and NIGELEC of Niger as the major international customers.
While Mainstream Energy Solutions received $2.59 million from NIGELEC out of its $3.71 million invoice — a 69.8 per cent remittance rate — CEET made no payment for its $4.31 million supply. SBEE, which sources power from Transcorp and Paras Energy, also failed to clear part of its outstanding bills.
NERC noted that among all international contracts, only the Transcorp (Ughelli)–SBEE deal achieved full payment, with the Beninese firm settling its $5.47 million invoice in full. Other arrangements, including Paras–SBEE, Paras–CEET, and Odukpani–CEET, recorded zero payments for the period under review.
On the domestic side, local bilateral customers remitted ₦1.4 billion out of ₦2.8 billion billed — a 50.10 per cent remittance rate. One local customer, Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI), also made part payments of ₦10.53 million to offset outstanding invoices from previous quarters.
The commission warned that persistent payment defaults by both international and local customers continue to strain the liquidity of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), impacting generation companies and the Market Operator, who depend on prompt payments to sustain grid stability and operations.
