MAN owes N30bn since 2015 electricity tariff, decry liquidity crisis

The electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have said Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) owe the Nigerian electricity market about N30 billion in unpaid electricity bills after a new tariff was implemented in 2015.

The Chief Commercial Officer, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), Mr. Deolu Ijose who gave the hint in Abuja at the March edition of the Power Dialogue of Nextier Power said the debt accumulated after MAN obtained a court order to freeze the implementation of Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO 2.0) enforced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in 2015.

The DisCos also lamented the low tariff in place while decrying the continuous menace of energy theft and meter bypass that are facing the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

Mr Ijose noted that while there was the need for the DisCos to provide more meters to their customers, he said about 80 per cent of available meter were being bypassed.

He said: “There are some other things that probably have gone beyond the control of the Discos. It will interest you to know that MAN went to court when the 2015 MYTO 2.0 came in. And right now, MAN is owing the Discos an average of about N30 billion."

Another challenge he identified in the liquidity issue of the power sector is that government was silent on clearing MDAs debt that accumulated from 2017

“One month ago the Federal Government declared part of the 2015 and 2016 debts that were accumulated over a period of three to four years. But as we are talking right now, as at 2017 January going forward, nobody is even discussing it.

“Now, these are some of the liquidities that should have been thrown into the system to cushion all these challenges like metering and others because we need investments to do these things,” the Disco official noted. 

Stakeholders at the dialogue called for the need to address the growing liquidity crisis in the sector in the next 12 months to save the sector from looming collapse. 

The Daily Trust reports that the Discos remitted only 8 per cent of their monthly bills for December 2017 while some Generation Companies (GenCos) are in court with the Federal government over what they said was poor payment of their monthly  energy invoices.