Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) market receipts for June stood at N26.811 billion, says the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET).

The NBET spokeswoman, Henrietta Ighomrore, announced this in a statement on Thursday.

The market receipt payment is received for grid distributed electricity in the Nigerian power sector.

NBET named the EKO Electricity Distribution Company as the highest remitter in the ‘June 2021 Electricity Market Payment’.

Ms Ighomrore said the information showed that no DisCo met the 100 per cent mark though EKO DisCos came close with a 93.4 per cent remittance of its market receipts.

According to her, the June 2021 market receipts from the DisCos totalled N26.811 billion, with the top three remitters being EKO, Abuja, and Port Harcourt DisCos with 93.4 per cent, 86.6 per cent, and 76.4 per cent, respectively.

She added that the June 2021 market payment had been disbursed to the generating companies (GenCos) in proportion to their invoice.

Ms Ighomrore also stated that NBET was engaging with stakeholders in the value chain to ensure payment improvement and viability of the Nigerian electricity market.

NBET is the administrator of the national power pool and the financial flow in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

“The NBET implements the Minimum Remittance Order issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to all DisCos, which sets the minimum percentage payment each DISCO is to remit to NBET on a month-to-month basis,” explained Ms Ighomrore.

She recalled that in 2016 when a shortage of gas and the inability of some GenCos to meet their immediate obligations threatened generation capacity, NBET swung into action with the conceptualisation and implementation of its N701.9 billion Payment Assurance Facility (PAF).

“This was efficiently managed and disbursed from January 2017 till December 2018, resulting in a quantum leap of 6500 Mega Watts (MW) generation capacity to a 7659MW at the end of the PAF,” said Ms Ighomrore. “The success of the N701.9 billion PAF led to sustainable generation capacity and increased available electricity. This success led to the birth of PAF 11. The implementation of PAF 11, a N600 billion facility for 2019/2020, later metamorphosed into the Power Sector Reform Programme.”

(NAN)