In spite of huge amount of tarrif charged,Power distribution companies has failed to remit a total of N208.8bn to the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry in 2022, the Federal Government has said.
Figures obtained on Sunday from the latest Fourth Quarter 2022 Report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, a Federal Government agency, as well as those from the First, Second and Third quarters showed that the Discos never made complete remittances all through the period.
Electricity: July 1 increment date irreversible-Discos
There are about 11 power distribution companies in Nigeria responsible for distributing electricity to consumers in their respective franchise areas of operation. They include Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Yola Discos.
The Discos were created in 2013 as part of Nigeria’s power sector reforms aimed at improving the efficiency and reliability of electricity supply across the country.
The firms collect electricity bills from consumers on behalf of power market. They make remittances to the power market through the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator, an arm of the Federal Government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria.
But figures obtained from the power sector regulator showed that the Discos did not remit N49.23bn, N31.3bn, N58.3bn and N69.94bn in the fourth, third, second and first quarters of 2022, respectively, making a total of N208.8bn.
Commenting on market remittance, in its fourth quarter report, the NERC said, “The combined invoices issued to the Discos in 2022/Q4 was N231.01bn consisting of: i) generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company: N188.74bn; ii) transmission and administrative services from the Market Operator: N42.27bn.”
“As consumers, are we not paying our power bills? For the generation companies, don’t they pay for gas? And somebody will collect money on our behalf and will not remit. So this system of privatisation cannot work and has not worked since the sector was privatised 10 years ago.”
The Abuja-based power sector expert and former member of the Presidential Adhoc Committee on Review of Electricity Tariff in Nigeria, further called on the government ro pull out its 40 per cent stake in the Discos and break the 11 distribution companies’ franchises into smaller units so as to break the present market monopoly and promote the ideals of a competitive electricity market.
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