NDPHC alleges CBN, others owe ₦190bn electricity debt

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), and the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) of owing the company ₦190 billion for electricity supply.

NDPHC’s Managing Director, Chiedu Ugbo, made the revelation during a media briefing in Lagos on Monday, stating that the debt accumulated from 2015 had made it difficult for the company to meet its obligations, including operational expenditures and payments to gas suppliers.

Ugbo stated that the ₦190 billion debt was primarily owed by the government agencies, with NBET owing the bulk of the debt, although he did not disclose the exact amount.

“Huge indebtedness by the market to NDPHC runs into hundreds of billions—₦190 billion as of May for unpaid invoices. NDPHC is also not paid for availability but only as dispatched, thereby depriving NDPHC of hundreds of billions since 2015, when the Transitional Electricity Market was declared, and the government has so far been denied revenue as high as ₦3 trillion,” Ugbo said.

He explained that the company had been forced to cut down on its power generation capacity due to the debt and that the debt had negatively impacted NDPHC’s ability to generate power, forcing the company to reduce its generation capacity from 2,000 MW to 975 MW.

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

Ugbo also noted that NDPHC had been forced to cut costs and rely on internally generated revenue, coupled with government interventions, to sustain operations and stressed the need for urgent private capital mobilisation to address the company’s financial challenges and improve its operations.

“Despite the interventions and other FGN initiatives in networks, liquidity challenges persist. It is obvious that a lot more investment is required in transmission and the government alone cannot do this.

“There is therefore a need for urgent private capital mobilisation and exploring independent transmission projects, starting with Gencos as investors. With NDPHC’s track record, this is possible within the shortest possible time,” he added.

Meanwhile, NDPHC’s Executive Director of Generation, Abdullahi Kassim, introduced the company’s “Light-up Nigeria Initiative,” a programme designed to leverage NDPHC’s generation assets to provide reliable electricity supply to eligible customers, distribution companies, and third-party project developers that aggregate load and provide a reliable supply to bulk customers.

Kassim explained that the initiative aims to prioritise sales to bulk purchasers and developers that aggregate load, enabling NDPHC to sell a significant portion of its stranded capacity and light up businesses and homes.

He noted that the goal is to provide more than 97 percent of the generated power to the masses.