The Transmission Company of
Nigeria (TCN) has asked its international electricity customers to pay $9
million outstanding power bills.
Speaking in Abuja, Usman
Mohammed, managing director of TCN, said these countries will not be allowed to
cheat Nigeria.
Nigeria supplies electricity to
Niger, Togo, and Republic of Benin
Mohammed, who is also the
chairman of West African Power Pool (WAAP), said the international electricity
customers have accumulated a bill of over $100 million since he assumed office.
He said the government supplies
electricity to contracted international customers, and that those who are
defaulting in payment will be disconnected.
“It is not because I am the
chairman of the West African Power Pool (WAAP) that I will be allowing
international customers to cheat Nigeria,” Mohammed said.
“When I took over as MD TCN, both
Benin and Togo were owing Nigeria more than $100 million. The debt now remains
$7 million.
“Niger is owing less than $2
million. In short, we are not leaving them. We disconnect them as we disconnect
customers here in Nigeria. Electricity is not charity. We cannot just allow
people to consume electricity and leave us like that.
“As at now, we have restricted
their supply to only their contracted ones. We are insisting they pay all their
outstanding bills before we reconnect them and we increase the off-take.”
The Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC) said in its 2019 report that the international
customers refused to pay for the energy invoice issued to them.
“During the quarter under review,
the special and international customers made no payment to NBET and MO. The
invoices issued to Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd (designated as special customer) and
international customers (i.e., Societe Nigerienne d’electricite – NIGELEC and
Communaute Electrique du Benin–CEB) stood at ₦0.32billion and ₦10.85billion
respectively,” the report said.
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