Togo, Benin and Niger Owe Nigeria $12.66m for Electricity in Q1 2026

Jul 7, 2026 - 10:52 Updated: Jul 7, 2026 - 10:55
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By Victor Idajili


Three neighbouring countries supplied electricity by Nigeria failed to clear most of their bills in the first three months of 2026, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission  has said.

According to NERC’s Q1 2026 report released yesterday, Togo, Benin Republic and Niger Republic were billed a total of $17.48 million for power supplied by Nigerian Generation Companies.  
They only paid $4.84 million, representing 27.57% of the total.

  
Benin Republic – SBEE: $4.05 million  
  This covers $3.28 million for power from Ughelli and $0.77 million for Paras  
Niger Republic – NIGELEC: $1.87 million  
Togo – CEET: $0.72 million  

That leaves an outstanding balance of $12.66 million unpaid for Q1 alone.

NERC also noted that in the same quarter, the three international customers plus nine domestic bilateral customers made additional payments of $6.64 million and N2.59 billion respectively toward debts from previous quarters.

  
Domestic bilateral customers performed much better. They paid N5.82 billion out of N6.12 billion billed, a remittance rate of 95%.

 Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd and its host community, however, paid nothing toward invoices totaling N676.88 million to NBET and N189.38 million to the Market Operator. NERC said this continues a long pattern of non-payment and that the Commission has asked relevant federal authorities to intervene.

 
For Distribution Companies, total revenue collected in Q1 2026 was N597.56 billion out of N756.93 billion billed. That gives a collection efficiency of 78.95%.

This is a small drop from Q4 2025, when DisCos collected N630.93 billion out of N795.06 billion billed, or 79.36% efficiency — a 0.41 percentage point decline.


  
Because tariffs are still not fully cost-reflective, the Federal Government carried a subsidy obligation of N358.32 billion in Q1 2026.  
That’s N60.46 billion, or 14.44%, lower than the N418.79 billion recorded in Q4 2025.

NERC said the subsidy accounted for 51.95%*l of the total GenCo invoice in Q1, slightly down from 52.03% in the previous quarter. The main reason, it explained, was an
8.56% drop in energy offtake by DisCos between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.