The Federal Government’s electricity debt has risen by N800 billion in the last four months, an Ab stage of N200 billion per month since January.
This was revealed by the Senate Committee on Power while raising concerns over the liquidity crisis bedeviling the power sector.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists during a retreat held in Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, on Saturday.
The retreat was organized by the Nigerian Electricity and Regulatory Commission to proffer solutions to critical and emerging issues in the Nigerian Power sector.
The senator said the government has yet to make any payment to the power firms this year, indicating that the country is already indebted by N800 billion, in addition to previous indebtedness amounting to over N3 trillion.
Mr Abaribe said, “I will not be able to just, in this short interview, give you the statistics of these things. But there’s one key statistic that is very, very necessary for Nigerians to know. There’s a liquidity crisis in the power sector. The generating companies are owed so much, the distribution companies are also owed so much.
“The tariff shortfall that we have means that every month the government owes N200bn of payments, and for this year, 2025, no payment has been made. In other words, we’re already short by N800bn. Before this time, we had about N3tn debt to the generating companies. The generating companies owe the gas suppliers. The gas suppliers cannot just continue to supply gas indefinitely.”
