Nigeria is owed more than N25bn by neighbouring West African countries for electricity supplied under bilateral power agreements, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The regulator disclosed in its Third Quarter 2025 report that Togo, Niger and Benin failed to fully settle invoices issued for power supplied during the review period, leaving outstanding obligations running into millions of dollars.
NERC revealed that the three countries were invoiced a total of $18.69m by the Market Operator for electricity supplied in the third quarter of 2025. However, payments received during the period amounted to just $7.13m, resulting in an unpaid balance of $11.56m.
In addition to the current quarter shortfall, the international customers also carried forward legacy debts from previous periods. Out of $14.7m in outstanding invoices, only $7.84m was paid, leaving an unpaid balance of $6.23m.
The commission stated that the combined outstanding debt from previous quarters and the third quarter of 2025 stood at $17.8m, which translates to about N25.36bn at an exchange rate of N1,425 to the dollar.
The international offtakers were identified as Compagnie Énergie Électrique du Togo, Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique of Benin Republic, and Société Nigérienne d’Électricité of Niger Republic.
According to the report, the electricity supplied to the three countries was generated by Nigerian grid connected generation companies and delivered through cross border bilateral power arrangements.
NERC noted that payments made by the international customers in the third quarter represented a remittance performance of 38.09 per cent, indicating that more than half of the invoices issued during the period remained unpaid at the end of the quarter.
In contrast, domestic bilateral customers recorded stronger payment performance. The commission disclosed that local bilateral customers remitted N3.19bn out of the N3.64bn invoiced during the quarter, representing a remittance rate of 87.61 per cent.
“The domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of N3.19bn against the invoice of N3.64bn issued by the Market Operator for services rendered in 2025 third quarter,” the commission stated.
NERC also explained that some customers made additional payments to settle debts from earlier quarters. According to the report, the Market Operator received $7.84m from international bilateral customers and N1.3bn from domestic customers in respect of outstanding invoices from previous periods.
Meanwhile, the commission 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 the third quarter of 2025.
This was out of a total industry invoice of N400.48bn, representing 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 December 18, 2025, in line with its statutory responsibility to assess the commercial performance of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
