FG sends warning message to Togo, Benin, others over $7m debt, says electricity not charity

FG sends warning message to Togo, Benin, others over $7m debt, says electricity not charity

- FG has sent a warning message to Togo, Benin and others over their outstanding debt

- The countries owe Nigeria $7million

- Usman Gur Mohammed, the chairman of WAAP, however, noted that the outstanding bills of the international customers were over $100 million

The federal government of Nigeria has sent a warning message to its international electricity customers - Niger, Togo, and Republic of Benin over their outstanding $7million debt.

The Nation reports that the federal government said the “electricity is not charity.”

Legit.ng gathered that the chairman, West African Power Pool (WAAP), Usman Gur Mohammed, who was accused of playing the big brother with Nigeria’s electricity to the countries, disclosed that Nigeria was also strict with the international customers just as the Nigerians in debt recovery.

Mohammed, who is also the managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), recalled that on his assumption of office, the outstanding bills of the international customers were over $100 million.

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FG sends warning message to Togo, Benin over $7m debt, says electricity is not charity
Power grid
Source: Depositphotos

Stressing that Nigeria does not supply any customers electricity for free, he noted that the federal government disconnects the international customers just as it does to Nigerians when they owe electricity debts.

The WAAP chairman said that the federal government has now restricted its electricity supply to only contracted international customers.

According to him, Nigeria has insisted that the indebted international customers that were disconnected from the grid pay up their debts before they are reconnected.

He said: “It is not because I am the chairman of the West African Power Pool (WAAP) that I will be allowing international customers to cheat Nigeria. When I took over as MD TCN, both Benin and Togo were owing Nigeria more than $100 million. The debt now remains $7million.

“Niger is owing less than $2million. In short, we are not leaving them. We disconnect them as we disconnect customers here in Nigeria. Electricity is not charity. We cannot just allow people to consume electricity and leave us like that.

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“As at now, we have restricted their supply to only their contracted ones. We are insisting they pay all their outstanding before we reconnect them and we increase the off- take.”

He corrected the impression that electricity across the border is charity, noting that it is a business from which Nigeria makes millions of dollars like any other exported commodity.

Mohammed said that Nigeria has a comparative advantage of electricity generation in Africa.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that despite the suspension of strike by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Wednesday, December 11, some parts of the country were still experiencing blackouts.

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Source: Legit.ng

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