Electricity Consumers Fail to Pay N71.53bn in January – Report
Electricity consumers of the 12 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) failed to pay N71.53bn of electricity they consumed for the month of January.
According to a factsheet by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the DisCos collected N178.68bn from the N250.21bn bills they issued.
According to the factsheet, Aba Power charged its customers N5.79bn but collected N2.43bn while Abuja DisCo collected N24.82bn from N32.61bn.
Benin DisCo received N17.53bn from N23.24bn it issued out, Eko FDisCo collected N36.01bn from N42.03bn; Enugu DisCo received N13.85bn from N17.33bn bill; Ibadan DisCo collected N21.84bn from N29.57bn.
Others include Ikeja DisCo which raked in N32.81bn from the N44.02bn it issued. Jos DisCo collected N4.30bn from the N10.02bn it issued out while Kaduna DisCo received N3.06bn from N7.75bn.
Kano DisCo billed its customers N12.47 but got N7.08bn while Port Harcourt DisCo collected N12.56bn from the N21.03bn it issued out and Yola DisCo collected N2.34bn from the N4.33bn it issued out.
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The factsheet noted that the revenue collection of the entire disco dropped by 3.29 percent from what was collected in December 2024.
The drop in the consumers’ payment of electricity bills compound the liquidity crisis affecting the power sector.
Already, the government is owing DisCos and GenCos over N2trn for subsidy payment of last year.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu had last month said one of the major issues he is battling is the huge debt in the sector.
He said, “We are talking about legacy debt, which is across the board, over N2tn, and we still have an unpaid subsidy for 2024; we have another N1.9 trillion owed to them as part of electricity subsidy for 2024, while DisCos are owed N450bn for 2024 electricity subsidy.
“How do you expect the GenCos to perform optimally? How do you expect them to pay for gas, service and maintain their turbines and other infrastructure as well as pay their staff if a total of N4 trillion is being owed to them?”
SOURCE: Daily Trust
