Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET) has said that the remittances of 11 electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) operating in the country has declined by over 4.6% to N146.5 billion in four months ending April 2022.
In its latest monthly report, the NBET said the DISCOs were issued invoice of N266.9billion between January and April 2022, but could only raise N146.5billion, about 44.9%.
According to the report, the Ikeja Electric recorded the highest remittance of N7.867 billion in 2022 and N7.619billion in 2021, as Yola DISCO recorded the lowest remittance of N267million during the period.
NBET said the N266.9billion invoice represents the value of electricity supplied to Nigerian consumers within the period, while N146.5billion represents the payments collected by DISCOs from electricity consumers.
Commenting on the data, Mr. Adetayo Adegbemle, convener and executive director, PowerUp Nigeria, an electricity consumer right and power sector policy advocacy organization, said the high collection figures did not impact on the quality of service received by Nigerians.
“The power sector has defied almost every intervention from every angle. It is apparent that without a stable grid electricity, industries will continue to die, jobs also die with it.
“Nigeria remains a consuming economy, as local manufacturers cannot compete, as cost of energy alone will make their final prices impracticable. The economy will therefore continue to bleed, meanwhile we are not even taking into cognizance our population that keeps increasing. Like the maxim goes, an energy poor nation is a poor nation,” he said.
In his own comments, managing director, Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, said Nigeria should go for short-term and long-term frameworks to deal with the developments in the power sector.
“We need a government intervention on a long and short term. For the short term, what is needed to be addressed should range from insecurities, inadequate supply of gas etc.
“In the long term, the issue of power sector reform decentralization of the power supply and less reliance on the national grid. This is to enable less pressure on the grid so these collapses would not be pronounced. Nigeria is too big for the kind of centralized power we are operating currently,” Muda Yusuf said.
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