Togo, Others Owe Nigeria $12.66m for Electricity

Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, including Togo, the Republic of Benin and the Niger Republic, failed to pay a total of $12.66 million for electricity supplied during the first quarter of 2026, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

The commission disclosed this in its First Quarter 2026 report, stating that the three countries received electricity from Nigerian Generation Companies (GenCos) but paid only $4.82 million out of the $17.48 million billed for the period. This represents a payment rate of 27.57 per cent, leaving an outstanding balance of $12.66 million.

NERC explained that the payments were made through bilateral supply arrangements managed by the Market Operator (MO), which also oversees transactions involving domestic and international electricity customers.

While international customers recorded poor payment performance, domestic bilateral customers settled most of their bills. According to the report, local customers paid N5.82 billion out of the N6.12 billion invoiced during the same period, giving a remittance rate of 95 per cent.

The commission also revealed that both international and domestic bilateral customers made additional payments towards debts from previous quarters. During the first quarter of 2026, international customers paid $6.64 million, while domestic customers settled N2.59 billion in outstanding invoices.

A breakdown of the payments showed that Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE) paid a total of $4.05 million, covering electricity supplied by Ughelli and Paras power plants. Société Nigérienne d’Electricité (NIGELEC) paid $1.87 million to Mainstream, while Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) paid $0.72 million to Paras.

NERC also reported that Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and its host community, classified as special customers, failed to pay their electricity bills during the quarter. The report stated that they made no payment against invoices of N676.88 million issued by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and N189.38 million issued by the Market Operator.

The commission noted that the non-payment by the special customer has continued for a long period and said the matter has already been brought to the attention of the relevant Federal Government authorities for action.

The report further showed that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) collected N597.56 billion from customers during the first quarter of 2026 out of the N756.93 billion billed, resulting in a collection efficiency of 78.95 per cent.

This performance was slightly lower than the previous quarter when the DisCos collected N630.93 billion from a total bill of N795.06 billion, representing a collection efficiency of 79.36 per cent. NERC said this reflected a drop of 0.41 percentage points between the two quarters.

On electricity subsidies, the commission disclosed that the Federal Government spent N358.32 billion during the first quarter of 2026 because electricity tariffs remained below cost-reflective levels across all distribution companies.

The subsidy bill was lower than the N418.79 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing a reduction of N60.46 billion or 14.44 per cent.

According to NERC, the subsidy accounted for 51.95 per cent of the total invoices issued by power generation companies during the quarter, compared with 52.03 per cent in the previous quarter.

The commission attributed the lower subsidy requirement mainly to an 8.56 per cent decline in the volume of electricity taken by distribution companies between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.