The Nigerian electricity industry has been under a lot of pressure. Gas
supply is low and power generation has been severely affected.
More worrying is that they are owned hundreds of billions of naira in
debts by its customers. N93 billion of that debt is owed by Ministries and
Department of Government (MDA’s). That debt cascades down the value chain of
the power sector with most of it owed to power generating companies.
The power sector value chain is such that power is generated by the
Gencos and sold to the Marker Operators (MO), who then wheel the power
through the grid (run by transmission Company) to the Discos and then to
consumers. A reverse flow starts when the customers pay their bills to the
Discos and then the Discos pay the Market Operators (MO) who then pay the
Gencos and then the Gencos pay the gas suppliers.
For the Gencos, the above schematic is now more on paper than in
reality. They hardly get enough gas to generate electricity and even when gas
is available, they lack the funds to pay for it. Gencos are currently thought
to be owed about N50 billion by power distribution companies in Nigeria.
With distribution debts expected to remain high, it’s likely that the
Gencos are more likely to generate more debt for every single megawatt of power
generated
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