The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Bulk Electricity (NBET) now owe the Federal Government owned Power firm, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) the sum of N190 billon in 8 years (2015-2023). The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, revealed this to journalists in Lagos yesterday.
He noted that the “huge indebtedness by the market to NDPHC runs into hundreds of billions, N190 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 N3trn,”
According to the NDPHC Boss, as a result of the debt, the organization has not been able to perform at optimal level. Ugbo explained that the debt had made it difficult to meet some of its obligations such as operational expenditures including stock of spares, payment to gas suppliers, and others.
“Since we are being owed, we can’t also pay our gas suppliers and they too won’t supply us gas. Gas is what we use in generating power, and if we can’t generate; we can’t sell. The name plate capacity of our ten plants is 4000MW. We have the capacity to generate as much as 2000MW but we currently generate 975MW,”
He added that the company had to cut down costs, and had been able to sustain operations with internally generated revenue, coupled with interventions by the Federal Government, adding that the company needs “urgent private capital mobilisation”.
While speaking, Executive Director, Generation, Engr. Abdullahi Kassim explained that the Company hoped to resolve the challenges through its bilateral contracts ‘Light-up Nigeria Initiative’, a programme designed to leverage its generation assets to deliver reliable supply to eligible (maximum demand) customers, electricity distribution companies, and third-party project developers that aggregate load and provide a reliable supply to bulk customers.
