The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) failed to remit N160.1 billion in Second Quarters (Q2 2020) to the Market Operator (MO) of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
In the quarter under review, according to the commission, the DisCos paid N62.41 billion to the MO.
The Second Quarter report that contained this noted that “During the second quarter of 2020, a total invoice of ₦222.51billion was issued to the eleven (11) DisCos for energy received from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (“NBET”) and for service charge by MO, out of which a sum of ₦62.41billion was settled, representing a remittance performance of 28.05 per cent”.
NERC said this represents a 4.67percentage points decline from the final settlement rate recorded in the first quarter of 2020.
It explained that whereas two DisCos fully met the expected minimum remittance thresholds (“MRTs”) to MO, none of the eleven (11)DisCos fully met the MRTs to NBET.
According to NERC, the average aggregate remittance performances to MO and NBET were 86.35 per cent and 18.94 per cent respectively, with performance level ranging from 9.63 (Yola) to106.23 per cent 1 (Abuja) for MO and 1.54 per cent (Kaduna) to 34.22 per cent (Eko) for NBET.
It said only Ikeja and Abuja DisCos met the remittance obligation to MO during the quarter under review.
NERC said the average total remittance to the market by all
DisCos fell by 28.05 per cent and ranges from 5.12 per cent (Kaduna DisCo) to 43.34 per cent (Eko DisCo).
Continuing, the commission said the “financial viability and commercial performance of the industry continued to be a major challenge albeit a slight improvement in 2020/Q2.
“During the quarter under review, the total billing to and collection from electricity consumers by all the eleven (11) DisCos stood at ₦164.07 billion and ₦121.61billion respectively”.
NERC also said during the quarter under review, the total revenue realised by the Commission was ₦2.23billion, about 31.35 per cent lower than the revenue realised in the preceding quarter.
The report read in part: “The noted decrease in the revenue was due to the decrease in revenue from both the operating levy (i.e., market charges) and other Internally Generated Revenue (“OIGR”) such as licensing fee realised by the Commission.
“The operating levy and OIGR which stood at ₦2.20billion and ₦38.30million respectively in the second quarter of 2020 were respectively 31.37 per cent and 29.72 per cent lower than the amount realised in the preceding quarter.
“In the same period, the Commission incurred a total (capital and recurrent) expenditure of ₦1.36billion which is lower than the ₦1.94billion incurred in the first quarter of 2020”.

By By John Ofikhenua