Within 16 months, the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) in Nigeria lost the capacity to pay N484.993 billion of the N1.084 trillion invoices they received for the electricity they received from the power Generation Companies (GenCos) between January 2021 and April 2022.
This development further confirms the concerns of experts about the ailing state of Nigeria’s power sector, which faces a liquidity crisis, resulting in poor supply to consumers.
Daily Trust on Sunday’s analysis of the latest data on payment receipts in the Nigerian Electricity Market (NEM) from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) shows that almost all the DisCos are crisis-ridden. The crisis has become obvious among six DisCos in the last eight months, prompting the takeover of Abuja DisCos by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) over loan default in November 2021.
There was a similar case with Fidelity Bank concerning Benin, Kaduna, and Kano DisCos in July 2022, as well as Ibadan DisCo and Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), on behalf of the defunct Skye Bank. And the Port Harcourt DisCo had its key management officials and board replaced this month to avoid collapse.
Read more:https://dailytrust.com/11-discos-fail-to-pay-n485bn-for-electricity-supply-in-16-months
