The failure of Federal and state governments, as well as their ministries and agencies to pay over N100 billion outstanding electricity bills
The situation has also led to distribution companies hounding private electricity consumers who pay more through estimated bills and higher tariffs, rather than recover outstanding debts from government agencies.
While Zakari said there was an approach to cover the historical debt and set up a structure to ensure compliance, the head of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, Yusuf Ali, said results are due in December. Earlier last week, the Senate alluded that Ikeja Electric Plc and Eko Electricity Distribution Company alone are owed over N91.96 billion outstanding debts by the federal government’s ministries, departments and agencies .With the sector’s lingering financial crisis earlier projected by the French Agency for Development to be growing at N474 billion yearly, industry players noted that the sector may be on the verge of collapse.
Speaking on the situation, PwC’s Associate Director, Energy, Utilities and Resources, Habeeb Jaiyeola, said the impact of government efforts through improvements in tariff structure, infrastructure development and others would be negatively affected if the government and private sector customers do not settle their bills when due.
Another energy expert and legal practitioner, Madaki Ameh, insisted that the huge outstanding electricity bills by government agencies have remained a barrier to the growth of the nation’s power sector even before privatisation.“With the privatisation of the sector and the introduction of prepaid meters, this situation was expected to improve and be completely eliminated over time.
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