KEY POINTS
- International power buyers paid just over a third of invoices issued in Q3 2025
- Domestic bilateral customers recorded stronger remittance levels
- Chronic nonpayment by Ajaokuta Steel remains a major concern
In the third quarter of 2025, Nigeria’s electricity generation companies received a total of $7.12 million and N3.19 billion from bilateral customers. This shows that payment problems are still affecting the country’s power market.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission report for the quarter showed a big difference between domestic and international buyers in how well they met their payment obligations. Regulators said that the imbalance could hurt market liquidity and long-term viability.
The report says that three international bilateral customers only paid $7.12 million out of bills totaling $18.69 million, which is a remittance rate of 38.09 percent. In contrast, domestic bilateral customers paid N3.19 billion out of a total bill of N3.64 billion, which means they paid 87.61 percent of the time during the same time period.
Foreign buyers lag as local electricity customers perform better
In the last quarter, Mainstream Energy paid $5.7 million to NIGELEC in international payments, while Transcorp Power paid $1.42 million to SBEE in Benin Republic.
NERC said that the weaker performance of foreign buyers continues to raise concerns about settlement risk, especially since GenCos need a steady cash flow to pay for operations, maintenance, and fuel.
The commission said that some customers tried to make up for missed payments by paying off older debts. International buyers paid an extra $7.84 million toward bills that were overdue from previous quarters. Domestic customers paid off N1.29 billion in bills that were due to the Market Operator.
The report said that Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and the community where it is located were a problem area that kept coming up. The customer didn’t pay any of the bills that were sent out in the third quarter of 2025. They owe N1.03 billion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and N100 million to the Market Operator.
NERC said that the continued nonpayment is a long-standing problem and that the matter has been brought to the attention of the appropriate federal authorities for action.
