The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that Togo, the Republic of Benin and the Niger Republic failed to settle $12.66 million worth of electricity supplied by Nigerian generation companies during the first quarter of 2026.
According to the commission, the three neighbouring countries were billed a combined $17.48 million but paid only $4.82 million, representing a remittance rate of 27.57 per cent.
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The details were contained in NERC’s First Quarter 2026 report released on Tuesday.
The report stated that the payments were made by international bilateral customers receiving electricity from Generation Companies (GenCos) within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
NERC explained that the three international customers remitted $4.82 million out of the $17.48 million invoiced by the Market Operator (MO) for electricity supplied during the period, leaving an outstanding balance of about $12.66 million.
The commission, however, noted that domestic bilateral customers recorded stronger payment performance. They paid a total of ₦5.82 billion out of the ₦6.12 billion invoiced by the Market Operator in the first quarter, translating to a remittance rate of 95 per cent.
It also revealed that three international customers and nine domestic bilateral customers made additional payments towards debts from previous quarters, amounting to $6.64 million and ₦2.59 billion respectively.
Breaking down the international payments, NERC said the Market Operator received $4.05 million from Société Béninoise d’Energie Electrique (SBEE), covering electricity supplied by Ughelli GenCo ($3.28 million) and Paras Energy ($770,000).
The report added that Mainstream Energy’s customer, Société Nigérienne d’Electricité (NIGELEC), paid $1.87 million, while Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), supplied through Paras Energy, remitted $720,000.
NERC further disclosed that the special customer, Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and its host community, failed to make any payment against invoices of ₦676.88 million issued by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc and ₦189.38 million issued by the Market Operator during the quarter.
The commission described the continued non-payment by the customer as a longstanding issue and said it had again notified the relevant Federal Government authorities, urging intervention.
On the performance of electricity distribution companies (DisCos), the report showed that they collected ₦597.56 billion from customers out of the ₦756.93 billion billed in Q1 2026, representing a collection efficiency of 78.95 per cent.
This was slightly lower than the 79.36 per cent collection efficiency recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, when DisCos recovered ₦630.93 billion from total billings of ₦795.06 billion. The decline represents a marginal drop of 0.41 percentage points.
The report also indicated that the Federal Government spent ₦358.32 billion on electricity subsidies during the first quarter of 2026 because tariffs remained below cost-reflective levels across the distribution companies.
According to NERC, the subsidy burden fell by ₦60.46 billion, or 14.44 per cent, from the ₦418.79 billion recorded in the last quarter of 2025.
The commission explained that the subsidy accounted for 51.95 per cent of the total invoices issued to generation companies, slightly below the 52.03 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.
It attributed the reduction mainly to an 8.56 per cent decline in the volume of electricity purchased by the distribution companies between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
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