The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that three neighbouring countries—Togo, Niger, and Benin—are currently owing Nigeria a total of $17.8 million, equivalent to over ₦25 billion, for electricity supplied under bilateral power arrangements.
According to NERC’s Third Quarter (Q3) 2025 report, the three international customers were invoiced $18.69 million by the Market Operator for electricity supplied during the quarter but remitted only $7.125 million, leaving an outstanding balance of $11.56 million.
The commission further revealed that the international customers also had legacy unpaid invoices amounting to $14.7 million from previous quarters. Out of this amount, $7.84 million was paid, leaving an outstanding balance of $6.23 million. Combined with the unpaid Q3 2025 invoices, the total debt stood at $17.8 million, valued at approximately ₦25.36 billion using an exchange rate of ₦1,425 to the dollar.
NERC identified the indebted international offtakers as Compagnie Énergie Électrique du Togo, Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique of the Republic of Benin, and Société Nigérienne d’Électricité of the Republic of Niger.
The commission stated that the three countries, which purchase electricity generated by grid-connected Nigerian generation companies through cross-border bilateral arrangements, recorded a remittance performance of just 38.09 per cent in Q3 2025.
“The three international bilateral customers being supplied by GenCos in the NESI made a payment of $7.12 million against the cumulative invoice of $18.69 million issued by the Market Operator for services rendered in 2025/Q3, translating to a remittance performance of 38.09 per cent,” NERC said.
In contrast, domestic bilateral customers performed significantly better during the same period. NERC disclosed that domestic customers remitted ₦3.19 billion out of the ₦3.64 billion invoiced to them in Q3 2025, representing a remittance rate of 87.61 per cent.
“The domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of ₦3.19 billion against the invoice of ₦3.64 billion issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q3,” the commission noted.
NERC also explained that some bilateral customers made payments for outstanding invoices from previous quarters. According to the report, the Market Operator received $7.84 million from international customers and ₦1.3 billion from domestic customers in settlement of earlier debts.
Meanwhile, the commission revealed that Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) remitted a total of ₦381.29 billion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the Market Operator in Q3 2025. This was out of a total invoice of ₦400.48 billion, representing a remittance performance of 95.21 per cent.
NERC said the figures were based on reconciled market settlements submitted to the commission as of December 18, 2025, in line with its statutory assessment of the commercial performance of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
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