₦airaland Forum

The Senate Committee on Power has raised concerns over the liquidity crisis bedeviling the power sector, lamenting that tariff shortfalls have indicated that the government is owing a whopping N200bn to generating and distribution companies every month.

The Committee’s chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists during the retreat held in Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, on Saturday.

The retreat, jointly organised with the Nigeria Electricity and Regulatory Commission, aims to provide solutions to “critical and emerging issues in the Nigerian Power sector.”

Abaribe expressed worries that the government is yet to make any payment to the distribution companies this year, 2025, indicating that the country is already indebted by N800bn in addition to previous indebtedness amounting to over N3 trillion.

“I will not be able to just, in this short interview, give you the statistics of these things. But one key statistic is very, very necessary for Nigerians to know.

“There’s a liquidity crisis in the power sector. The generating companies are owed so much, the distribution companies are also owed so much.

“The tariff shortfalls that we have mean that every month the government owes N200 billion in payments, and for this year, 2025, no payment has been made. In other words, we’re already short by N800 billion. Prior to this time, we had about N3 something trillion debt to the generating companies.

“The generating companies owe the gas suppliers. The gas suppliers cannot just continue to supply gas indefinitely ” Abaribe said.

The senator, however, expressed the hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

According to him, “The Hope, really is this, a decision must be taken by the Federal Government and the state governments because right now, we have two-tier electricity markets. The state can do it, the Federal Government can do it, so they must all come together and make that decision.

“How do we get out of this? How do we pay for it? Who pays? And so forth, everywhere else in the world, that decision is always taken. Do we take the decision to subsidise fuel that we all used to run around, or do we see the decision to subsidise electricity that goes to every one of us in terms of production. So that’s our choice to make.”

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, while giving an overview of the power sector reforms, highlighted the achievements of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, especially in the area of increase in magawatt generation.

He also listed the challenges of the sector to include funding and vandalization of energy equipment, among others saying “only in this country are energy equipment are being vandalised in such magnitude”

In his remarks, Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno who was represented by his deputy, senator Akon Eyakenyi, described Small and Medium Enterprises as the engine of economic growth in most societies noting that only steady electricity supply can unlock the sector

He expressed the hope that the caliber of resource persons at the retreat critical issues bedeviling the power sector would be addressed.

Source: https://punchng.com/Senate-decries-monthly-N200bn-owed-to-discos

Solar republic of Wakanda loading.

Now imagine what the poor masses are going through

Omoh

Apc propagandists just exit the WhatsApp group

They should cut off the affected agencies na, when they can pay they connect them back. Awon agbaya oshi

Light had improved here though but they haven’t been doing well until now

The money they are talking about is subsidy payments, not electricity bills owed by government agencies.

(That's why they mentioned tariff shortfalls and subsidy).

The Senate Committee on Power has raised concerns over the liquidity crisis bedeviling the power sector, lamenting that tariff shortfalls have indicated that the government is owing a whopping N200bn to generating and distribution companies every month.

“How do we get out of this? How do we pay for it? Who pays? And so forth, everywhere else in the world, that decision is always taken. Do we take the decision to subsidise fuel that we all used to run around, or do we see the decision to subsidise electricity that goes to every one of us in terms of production. So that’s our choice to make".

Hellinues oya come and defend Jagabandit

with all the money this senate they share, dem no fit pay their electric bill?

budaatum:
Government, pay your electricity bill!

This electricity bill thing getting very ridiculous.

At that cost they should just create their own mini solar grid with less than 100m.

This even doesn't sound right. They are basically saying that the Senate uses 1.3 million KW of electricity every hour. That's 1.3GW of electricity every hour.

That's practically impossible.

Ask Chatgpt to break it down for you.

Adelabu is in above his head.

As a minimum, you need someone technical, with industry experience in charge.

adenigga:
Source: https://punchng.com/Senate-decries-monthly-N200bn-owed-to-discos

dollypi:
Adelabu is in above his head.

As a minimum, you need someone technical, with industry experience in charge.

The discos are just playing him because they know he lacks technical knowledge of the sector.

Na we go pay am, they will increase our bill again, that's how government pay for theirs

Kk

So this evil government can't pay the bills the imposed on us ?

The discos are hypocrites.
They know full well that their staff go round the slums where majority of the households are not metered, billing them arbitrarily and pocketing the money via reconnection fees.
They now expect the metered households ( who paid exorbitant fees for meters and still paid bribes to their staff before getting meters) to pay band A tariffs for nonexistent electricity.
Come to my estate and see the pace at which solar systems are being installed- in households that also have full size soundproof generators.
THE BIGGEST LOSER WILL BE THE DISCOS.
MOST PEOPLE ARE WATER SELF SUFFICIENT.
SOON THE DISCOS WILL BE ISOLATED.

The second part of this horror story is the untold corruption of this government.
Being brutal in revenue generation is good if you are in a hurry to develop the country and claw back the infrastructure deficit.
However, these ones have raised stupendous amounts of money by putting the masses to the sword, AND THEY ARE JUST STEALING THE WHOLE THING.
🇳🇬 🇳🇬 🇳🇬

The monies the politicians use to buy SUVs would greatly reduce the outstanding. But they never get prorities right in Nigeria.

Even the air you breath, why are you breathing like that?

You want to consume all the oxygen?

nwirinedu:
The monies the politicians use to buy SUVs would greatly reduce the outstanding. But they never get prorities right in Nigeria.

The ones for their yeye constituency projects nko?

But the senate and house of rep members pocket 1-2 billion each for constituency project

Ok

The government is daily threatening to take over discos for non-performance, meanwhile the same government is the biggest delinquent. They owe discos hundreds of billions, from Federal to State MDAs, even government houses and state secretariats hardly pay their bills.

Worse are the military forces, who won't pay a dime and would proceed to brutalize workers with impunity when they disconnect them, like what they did to Ikeja Disco.

All these I'm sure is just to remove the so call subsidy and increase the money.

God dey Sha!

Gadaffi9ja:
They should cut off the affected agencies na, when they can pay they connect them back. Awon agbaya oshi

Go and Cut Military Barracks

I hope the government will not as usual force the payment on the innocent masses by negotiating an increased tariff sha

Teymanhenry:
I hope the government will not as usual force the payment on the innocent masses by negotiating an increased tariff sha

LOADING........