Togo, Niger and Benin owe Nigeria a combined $17.8m (more than N25bn) for electricity supplied under bilateral power agreements, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
In its Third Quarter 2025 report, NERC disclosed that the three neighbouring countries were invoiced a total of $18.69m for electricity supplied during the period. However, they remitted only $7.125m, leaving an unpaid balance of $11.56m for the quarter under review.
The regulator further revealed that the international customers also had outstanding legacy debts from previous quarters. Of the $14.7m invoiced before Q3 2025, $7.84m was paid, leaving an additional balance of $6.23m. When combined with the unpaid Q3 invoices, the total outstanding debt rose to $17.8m. At an exchange rate of N1,425 to the dollar, this amounts to approximately N25.36bn.
NERC identified the international offtakers as Compagnie Énergie Électrique du Togo, Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique of the Republic of Benin, and Société Nigérienne d’Électricité of the Republic of Niger.
According to the report, the electricity supplied to these countries was generated by grid-connected Nigerian generation companies (GenCos) and delivered through bilateral cross-border power supply arrangements. Despite this, the three international customers recorded a remittance performance of just 38.09 per cent in Q3 2025, meaning that more than half of the invoices issued during the period remained unpaid at the end of the quarter.
“The three international bilateral customers being supplied by GenCos in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry made a payment of $7.12m against the cumulative invoice of $18.69m issued by the Market Operator for services rendered in 2025/Q3,” NERC stated.
In contrast, domestic bilateral customers demonstrated significantly stronger payment discipline. NERC reported that local customers paid N3.19bn out of the N3.64bn invoiced to them during the same quarter, representing a remittance performance of 87.61 per cent.
The commission also noted that some bilateral customers settled parts of their outstanding obligations from earlier quarters. In addition to the $7.84m received from international customers, domestic bilateral customers paid N1.3bn towards previous invoices.
Beyond bilateral arrangements, NERC disclosed that Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies remitted a total of N381.29bn to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator in Q3 2025. This was out of a total invoice of N400.48bn, translating to an overall remittance performance of 95.21 per cent.
NERC said the figures were based on reconciled market settlements submitted to the commission as of 18 December 2025, as part of its statutory assessment of the commercial performance of Nigeria’s electricity market.
