Neighbouring countries like Benin and Togo have failed to pay more than half of what they owed Nigeria for electricity supplied in the second quarter of 2025, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said.

According to the commission’s Second Quarter 2025 Report, six international bilateral customers who receive power from Nigerian generation companies remitted only $9.01m out of a $17.54m invoice issued by the Market Operator for services rendered in the period.

This left an outstanding balance of about $8.53m, representing a remittance performance of 51.33 per cent.

A breakdown in the report showed that Benin’s Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique, Togo’s Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo, and Niger’s NIGELEC were among the main international buyers.

While Mainstream Energy Solutions received $2.59m out of the $3.71m invoice issued to NIGELEC (69.8 per cent remittance), CEET made no payment for its $4.31m worth of power supply. SBEE, which buys electricity from Transcorp and Paras Energy, also left a portion of its invoice unpaid.

“The six international bilateral customers being supplied by GenCos in the NESI made a payment of $9.01m against the cumulative invoice of $17.54m issued by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to a remittance performance of 51.33 per cent,” NERC said.

It added that the domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of N1.4bn against the invoice of N2.8bn issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to 50.10 per cent remittance performance.

In total, Transcorp (Ughelli)–SBEE was the only contract that achieved full remittance, paying its entire $5.47m invoice. Others, including Paras–SBEE, Paras–CEET and Odukpani–CEET, recorded zero payment for the period.

NERC added that one of the domestic bilateral customers made partial settlements for older invoices outside the quarter under review.

“It is noteworthy that one domestic bilateral customer made payments during 2025/Q2 for outstanding MO invoices from previous quarters. The MO received N10.53m from Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI) towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters,” the report stated.

It was said the shortfall in payments from both international and domestic bilateral customers continues to undermine the liquidity of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, where generation companies and the Market Operator rely on prompt remittances to sustain grid operations.