FG Increased Power Supply With N1.3tr As DisCos Remit N26.8 Billion

The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has boosted the supply of electricity in the country by about N1.3 trillion leading the Distribution Companies (DisCos) to remote about N26.8 billion in June 2021.

Brand News Day Nigeria gathers that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc made this known in a report, adding that the fund, a N701.9 billion Payment Assurance Facility (PAF) and another N600 billion was implemented from 2017 to 2020.

NBET revealed that the development slowdown electricity generation capacity by 6500MW, pushing capacity to 7659MW.

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Nigerian Power Sector

While the company named EKO Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) as the highest remitter in the June 2021 Electricity Market Payment received for grid distributed electricity in the Nigerian Power Sector, the agency’s Head of Corporate Communications Henrietta Ighomrore said ensuring efficient transactions in the sector remained sacrosanct.

While the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had set a Minimum Remittance Order for the utility companies, NBET said none of the DisCos met the order 100 per cent.

FG Increased Power Supply With N1.3tr As DisCos Remit N26.8 Billion

The agency, however, noted that EKEDC came close with a 93.4 per cent remittance of its threshold, insisting that strategies and initiatives are being deployed to enhance the market liquidity in the sector through improved payments to the generation companies.

Challenges relating to capacity, especially the shortage of gas and the inability of some GENCOS to meet their immediate obligations, had led to the implementation of the N701.9 Billion Payment Assurance Facility (PAF). The fund was disbursed from January 2017 till December 2018.

The N701.9 billion PAF was later followed by another N600 billion facility for 2019/2020, and later metamorphosed into the Power Sector Reform Programme.

According to Henrietta Ighomrore, the Head of Corporate Communications at NBET, “NBET has consistently demonstrated efficiency and transparency in the administration of the financial flow. The June 2021 market receipts from DisCos were N26.811 billion, with the three top remitters as EKO DisCo, Abuja DisCo, and Port Harcourt DisCo with 93.4 per cent, 86.6 per cent and 76.4 per cent respectively”.

Ighomrore stated that NBET is committed to ensuring timely and efficient payment to GENCOS to enable the generators to fulfil their obligations and maintain a sustainable supply of electricity to the grid.

She also stated that NBET is engaging with all stakeholders in the value chain to ensure payment improvement and viability of the Nigerian electricity market.