Consumers Pay N268 Billion As Electricity Bills In Second Quarter

The Federal Government, on Monday, said power consumers paid a total of N267.86bn as electricity bills in the second quarter of this year.

It disclosed this in the just released second quarter 2023 report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, while explaining the collection efficiency of power distribution companies during the review period.

It said, “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.”

On market remittance, the NERC report stated that in 2023/Q2, the cumulative upstream invoice payable by Discos was N194.69bn, consisting of N154.04bn for generation costs from NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading) and N40.65bn for transmission and administrative services 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 report stated.

On remittance by special and cross-border customers, the regulator stated that in 2023/Q2, out of the four international customers serviced by the MO, only Transcorp-SBEE made a payment of $1.43m, against an invoice of $2.13m issued for services rendered in 2023/Q2.

It said the three other international customers did not make any payment against the $11.97m invoice issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2023/Q22.

It noted that cumulatively, bilateral customers made a total payment of N816.66m, against the cumulative invoice of N2,845.08m issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2023/Q23.

Data from the report showed that while the Discos improved in their remittances to the power market, international consumers of Nigeria’s electricity defaulted to a large extent during the review period.