Debt: FG may cut power supply to Benin, Niger, Togo
Nigeria sells power to the Republics of Togo, Niger and Benin, and classifies the West African countries as international customers.
Officials at the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, told our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday that the international customers, who pay for the power they receive from Nigeria in dollars, owed the country, a development that had increased the financial indebtedness to the power generation companies.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who, however, revealed that Buhari was working hard to ensure that the electricity debts by the country’s neighbours were cleared.
Fashola stated that he had also directed the
Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company to go ahead and collect its money
from the international customers.
He noted that the government had issued letters to
the countries involved, adding that Nigeria would disconnect those who fail to
comply as endorsed by Buhari.
The minister said, “We issued disconnection
notices and that is why I’m asking the NBET to go and collect your money
because we have duties, obligations and international agreements with them as
brother and sister nations. But that does not mean they will not pay us if they
are defaulting. So, we have issued letters to them to pay their bills, and from
time to time, they pay.
“There was a time one head of state came to visit
President Buhari and little did I know that the real reason he came was to come
and tell him that the (power) sector had issued a notice of disconnection to
his country. And you may be interested to know that President Buhari simply
told him to go and pay, otherwise we will disconnect you because we are also
paying at home.”
Fashola also stated that he recently received the
minister of power from Niger and both of them discussed issues bordering on the
payment of electricity bills to Nigeria.
He said, “International customers, yes we have
delays in payment and I think that’s a fair thing to say. Our international
customers are government agencies and governments of Niger, Togo and the
Republic of Benin. So, it takes some time and even on our own side, we know
what it takes to get approvals, to process things and so on.
“You may be aware that the minister of power for
Niger Republic was here to see me on Thursday or Friday, and these were some of
the issues we had to discuss. And we also discussed the need for them to
transfer the rights under their old agreement, which they made with the PHCN to
NBET. So from time to time, we get the monies from international customers and
we pay the power generation companies.”
Punch
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