In total, all international bilateral customers were billed $17.54 million, but only paid $9.01 million between April and June 2025, while Local customers owe N1.3Billion
Impact of this on the Country and Community Involved
- Reduced Economic Activity
Businesses, especially SMMEs, suffer from constant power outages, which disrupt operations, reduce productivity, and limit economic potential.
Increased Costs: Businesses and households may resort to expensive alternative power sources like generators, adding to operating expenses and eating into profits and savings.
- Perpetuated Poverty:
A lack of reliable electricity hinders economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction, trapping communities in a cycle of underdevelopment.Decreased
- Standard of Living:
Persistent power outages affect daily life, leading to a lower quality of life and limited access to resources and opportunities.
- Widening Inequality:
Energy access, when available, tends to benefit the wealthy more, increasing the gap between rich and poor and potentially sparking social tensions.
A SaharaReporters review of data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for the second quarter of 2025 has revealed that international bilateral customers failed to remit $9.01 million for electricity supplied within a three-month period.
According to the report, PARAS-SBEE, one of the international customers supplying power to the Republic of Benin, made no payment out of the $2.7 million invoiced for the period.
Transcorp-SBEE, also serving Benin, paid $0.95 million out of its $1.28 million invoice.
Similarly, PARAS-CEET made no payment from the $2.02 million it was billed, while Odukpani-CEET also failed to pay any portion of the $2.29 million owed.
Mainstream-Nigelec, which supplies electricity to the Niger Republic, received an invoice of $3.71 million and remitted $2.59 million.
In total, all international bilateral customers were billed $17.54 million, but only paid $9.01 million between April and June 2025.
This leaves an outstanding amount of $8.53 million. In a related development, local bilateral customers also failed to remit ₦1.3 billion during the same period.
NERC data show that local consumers were billed a total of ₦2.7 billion but paid only ₦1.4 billion.The report said,
“The six (6) international bilateral customers being supplied by GenCos in the NESI made a payment of $9.01 million against the cumulative invoice of $17.54 million issued by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to a remittance performance of 51.33%.
“The domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of ₦1,401.00 million against the invoice of ₦2,796.29 million issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to 50.10% remittance performance.
“It is noteworthy that one (1) domestic bilateral customer made payments during 2025/Q2 for outstanding MO invoices from previous quarters.
The MO received ₦10.53 million from Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI) towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters.”“The special customer (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and the host community) did not make any payment towards the ₦1.27 billion (NBET) and ₦0.12 billion (MO) invoices received in 2025/Q2,” the report further noted.
“This continues a longstanding trend of non-payment by this customer, and the Commission has communicated the need for intervention on this issue to the relevant FGN authorities.”
