The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) said on Sunday the country’s power distribution companies (Discos) failed to clear the N416.94 billion incurred for electricity purchased from January and September this year.

NBET is an agency of government which purchases electricity in bulk quantity from generation firms via power purchase agreements, and sells to Discos for onward distribution to consumers.

In a report, NBET observed that a couple of Discos had not met the minimum remittance endorsed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

According to the report, a total invoice of N538.25 billion was issued to 11 Discos for the energy they received in the nine-month to September but paid just N121.31 billion to NBET.

It said: “They received a total invoice of N66.33 billion in July, N563.62 billion in August and N59.10 billion in September.

“The Discos paid N14.96 billion in January, N13.18 billion in February, N6.07 billion in March, N10.67 billion in April, N12.84 billion in May and N12.91 billion in June.

“The Discos paid N12.91 billion to NBET in July, N14.89 billion in August and N22.88 billion in September.”

NBET also disclosed that Kaduna Electric, which serves Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, failed to make remittances between March and May.

In the same vein, Kano Electric which is covering Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina did not pay NBET in March, April, May, and August.

In its quarterly report released recently, NERC expressed concern at the financial viability and commercial performance of the Nigerian electricity supply industry.

The regulator pointed out that N3.88 out of every N10 worth of energy sold was uncollected from consumers in the first quarter of this year.

NERC attributed the liquidity problem in the sector to failure of industry players to execute cost-reflective tariffs, steep technical and commercial losses aggravated by energy theft as well as consumers’ reluctance to pay under the estimated billing system.

“The severity of the liquidity challenge in NESI was reflected in the settlement rates of the service charges and energy invoices issued by Market Operator and NBET respectively to each of the Discos as well as the non-payment by the special and international customers for the services rendered by MO,” NERC said.