Debt owed by CBN, other agencies for electricity supply hits ₦190 billion

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has said about three federal government agencies owe the sum of ₦190 billion for electricity supply from 2015 till May 2023.

While speaking during a media briefing in Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo disclosed that the agencies include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), and the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMC).

He added that NBET was responsible for the bulk of the debt although he failed to reveal the exact amount.

The NDPHC boss said that despite the huge debt owed to the company, they have been able to manage the situation and keep the operations afloat but added that the NDPHC is also indebted to other suppliers in the value chain including the gas producers.

He noted that the debt affected its plan to meet up with certain obligations such as operational expenditures including stock of spares, payment to gas suppliers, and others.

“Since we are being owed, we can’t also pay our gas suppliers and they too won’t supply us gas. Gas is what we use in generating power, and if we can’t generate; we can’t sell. The nameplate capacity of our ten plants is 4000MW. We have the capacity to generate as much as 2000MW but we currently generate 975MW,” he said.

Speaking on the government's decision to ban further increments in tariff prices, Ugbo backed the action which further meant the continuation of electricity subsidy.

“Gas is denominated in USD but we pay in naira. Gas forms 60% of our cost for generation and we know the price of gas today and that would have impacted seriously on tariff. The tariff is not cost reflective, if it is cost-reflective, the tariff would have hit the roof. The government in its wisdom said the tariff should not be increased and it makes a lot of sense because of the macroeconomic challenges affecting everybody.” He added.

Ugbo also said the company had taken up some austerity measures and the use of its internally generated revenue coupled with interventions by the Federal Government to be able to manage operations efficiently.