KEY POINTS

• Togo, Niger and Benin owe Nigeria a combined $17.8 million for electricity supplied under bilateral agreements.
• Only 38 percent of international power bills issued in the third quarter of 2025 were paid.
• Domestic bilateral customers recorded stronger payment compliance during the same period.

The Nigerian electricity regulator, NERC, has said that Togo, Niger, and Benin owe Nigeria a total of $17.8 million for electricity that was provided through bilateral agreements.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission said this in its Third Quarter 2025 report on how well the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry was doing.

The NERC noted that the debt includes unpaid bills from the third quarter of 2025 and obligations that have been carried over from earlier quarters. The total exposure is more than N25 billion at the current exchange rate.

Legacy debts deepen exposure

NERC said that domestic bilateral customers were better at paying their bills. Local offtakers paid N3.19 billion out of the N3.64 billion billed in the third quarter, which is an 87.61 percent remittance rate.

The NERC also said that some customers paid off old debts by making extra payments. During the quarter, they got N1.3 billion from domestic customers.

Beyond bilateral deals, Nigeria eleven distribution companies remitted N381.29 billion out of a total invoice of N400.48 billion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator.

NERC said the figures were based on reconciled settlement data submitted as of December 18, 2025, as part of its statutory market assessment.