The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, on Thursday, said power consumers paid a total of N210.17bn to distribution companies in the fourth quarter of last year.

It disclosed this in its Quarterly Report for Fourth Quarter 2021 released on Thursday, noting that the N210.17bn represented 9.34 per cent of the total electricity bill given to consumers by electricity distribution companies during the period.

“The total revenue collected by all Discos in 2021/Q4 was N210.17bn out of N303.11bn billed to customers – corresponding to a collection efficiency of 69.34 per cent (70.89 per cent in 2021/Q3),” the regulator stated.

It added, “Compared to 2021/Q3, the total billing by Discos increased by N30.12bn (+11.03 per cent) while the revenue collected increased by only N16.64bn (+8.60 per cent), hence the reduction in overall collection efficiency in 2021/Q4.”

On market remittance, NERC stated that the combined market remittance order adjusted invoices from the Nigerian Bulk Trading Company and Market Operator to Discos in 2021/Q4 was N210.72bn for generation costs as well as transmission and administrative services.

“Out of this amount, the Discos collectively remitted a total sum of N149.19bn with an outstanding balance of N61.53bn. This represents a remittance performance of 70.80 per cent during the quarter.”

On remittance to NBET, it stated that out of the total invoice of N205.18bn issued by agency to Discos, it was expected to receive N160.13bn but it got only N109.45bn during the quarter.

“Overall, the total Disco remittance performance to NBET was 68.34 per cent of the expected market remittance for 2021/Q4 compared to 65.08 per cent (N100.16bn remitted against an invoice of N153.90bn) in 2021/Q3,” the NERC stated.

It added, “During 2021/Q4, Eko and Jos Discos surpassed their MRT to NBET by 32.64 per cent (+4.87 billion) and 0.86% (+0.03 billion) respectively.”

For the remittance to the Market Operator, the commission stated that the total invoice from MO to Discos in 2021/Q4 for which a 100 per cent remittance was expected was N50.58bn.

It said, “However, only N39.75bn was received from all the Discos which means that the MO remittance performance for the quarter was 78.59 per cent.

“This represents a 2.58 percentage point increase compared to 76.01 per cent (N41.53bn remitted against an invoice of N54.64bn) recorded in 2021/Q3.”

On remittances by special/international customers, the report indicated that in 2021/Q4, the NBET and MO issued invoices of N380.62m and N82.53m respectively to Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited but as was in the previous quarter, no remittance was made by this special customer.

“During the same period, MO issued an invoice of $13.11m to bilateral customers (Paras-SBEE, TRANSCORP-SBEE, Mainstream-NIGELEC & Odukpani-CEET) but no remittance was made (payment of $6.22m was made in 2021/Q3 against invoice of $11.52m),” the regulator stated.