₦airaland Forum

The Republics of Benin and Togo have failed to pay over $11m owed to Nigeria for electricity supplied in the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest report from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The bilateral customers from both countries — including SBEE (Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique) and CEET (Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo) — remitted only a fraction of their invoices.

Togo’s CEET, for instance, received power through two bilateral deals (with Odukpani and Paras Energy) and made no payments at all for the quarter. SBEE, which also has two bilateral contracts (via Transcorp and Paras), remitted just a portion of its dues.

Among the defaulters were PARAS-CEET (Togo), which remitted only $0.63m out of $1.92m; TRANSCORP-SBEE (Afam 3), which paid $0.3m of a $1.73m invoice; TRANSCORP-SBEE (Ughelli), with $1.82m paid against $4.97m; and ODUKPANI-CEET and PARAS-SBEE, both of which made no payment, according to the report.

Of the $17.24m invoiced to all six international bilateral customers, only $5.8m was paid — a remittance rate of 33.70 per cent, the report said. Only Niger Republic’s NIGELEC, which received supply through Mainstream Energy, fully settled its $3.03m invoice.

In contrast, Benin’s SBEE and Togo’s CEET collectively owed over $11m, with minimal or no payments made.

These defaults are part of a larger trend of poor remittance compliance among Nigeria’s international electricity customers, raising questions about the financial viability of cross-border energy trade.


NERC has repeatedly threatened to cut supply to the two countries, warning that such persistent shortfalls threaten the stability of Nigeria’s electricity market.

On the domestic front, the report showed that performance was stronger but still with some challenges. Some bilateral customers reportedly defaulted or made partial payments, and others were only settling old arrears.

While MSTM/Inner Galaxy paid its N1.64bn invoice in full, companies such as NDPHC/SUNFLAG, TAOPEX/KAM INT, TAOPEX/Kam Steel, and Sapele/Phoenix made no payments despite invoices totalling hundreds of millions of naira.

Other notable partial defaulters included NDPHC/WEEWOOD, which paid N71.74m out of N104.03m; NORTH SOUTH/STAR PIPE which paid N21.51m of N32.39m; Trans Amadi (OAU) and Trans Amadi (FMPI), which jointly remitted N23.57m of N35.98m Alaoju GENCO/APLE, with only N100 million paid out of N455.36m, showing a remittance rate of 21.96 per cent.

NERC also noted with concern that Ajaokuta Steel Company, a designated special customer, failed to make any payment on its N1.38bn (NBET) and N134.05m (MO) invoices, continuing a longstanding trend of non-payment.

Experts warn that these persistent defaults — both foreign and local — cast a shadow on the sustainability of bilateral and special supply arrangements in Nigeria’s electricity market.

SmartPolician:
Those countries are extremely poor. They cannot afford to pay for what they enjoy. You can never know how poor our West African neighbours are until you travel across the subregion. Those countries should be worshipping Nigeria.

gr8cany:
Extremely poor, yet they are doing better than your country. have you been to benin republic. Steady electricity, 24hours life activities and many more.
Nigeria no get shame

SmartPolician:
They aren't doing any better. They are just smaller, thereby making them extremely easy to manage. It's just common sense to know that it's easier to manage 50 people than 500 people. BTW, they have steady electricity which is partly supplied by Nigeria, yet they are too poor to pay for it.

gr8cany:
What makes a country better, if not ambience environment for living.
Every country owes including Nigeria.
Been able to manage their small country is what makes them better. If Nigeria is too big to manage, they should split and stop suffering citizens.
USA, China, India and many more are big yet, they are faring well.

Confirm4real:
Yet they enjoy stable Electricity 24/7 than the giver Country




What a beautiful Giant of Africa

Antoeni:
https://punchng.com/benin-togo-owe-nigeria-11m-in-electricity-debt-nerc/

Omalicious1:
Shouldn't we be sure of 24hours power supply before talking of supplying other countries?

nairalanda1:
They also pay more per kWh for power than we do and also don't connect people who cannot pay to their grid

nairalanda1:
They also pay more per kWh for power than we do and also don't connect people who cannot pay to their grid

Antoeni:
Imagine a Man Whose Children Starve Everyday And Sometimes Are Hospitalized Due to Malnutrition Giving Other People's Children Food to Eat From The Little That is Not Enough For His Own Family

gr8cany:
Extremely poor, yet they are doing better than your country. have you been to benin republic. Steady electricity, 24hours life activities and many more.
Nigeria no get shame

gr8cany:
Extremely poor, yet they are doing better than your country. have you been to benin republic. Steady electricity, 24hours life activities and many more.
Nigeria no get shame

Antoeni:
Imagine a Man Whose Children Starve Everyday And Sometimes Are Hospitalized Due to Malnutrition Giving Other People's Children Food to Eat From The Little That is Not Enough For His Own Family

Antoeni:
Imagine a Man Whose Children Starve Everyday And Sometimes Are Hospitalized Due to Malnutrition Giving Other People's Children Food to Eat From The Little That is Not Enough For His Own Family

Omalicious1:
Shouldn't we be sure of 24hours power supply before talking of supplying other countries?

Confirm4real:
So it's good as FG is sharing something that's not enough for it citizens

nairalanda1:
I daresay you run a business where 30% of your customers don't pay, 20% do pay and the rest underpay you. I congratulate you on your altruism

Confirm4real:
Continue supporting rubbish

So Nigerian Electricity has now become a business venture to trade with other Countries. It's people like you that always defend nonsense, so other Countries that boost their Economy for sustainable growth so Citizens could live upto the standard of living are mad right? rather than supplying Electricity to other Countries?

With your kind of mentality I wonder how Nigeria will grow and develop.

Max24:
How many are they? You want to compare a father feeding 20m children with one feeding 200m children. Nigeria is a bigger responsibility.

nairalanda1:
USA, china and India are not oil dependent and both china and India have very large numbers of poor people.

Your country is doing badly because you guys are interested in sharing money instead of a productive industrial economy

Judolisco:
we are supplying them because if they decide to build their dams we won't get enough flow to in d River Niger to turn our turbines... Nigeria have like 4 hydropower dams, jebba, kainji, shiroro, zungeru.... So we need to keep giving them light... Na strategy