GenCos Accuse Federal Agency NBET Of Owing N1.6tr

Electricity Generation Companies (GenCos) at the weekend painted a gloomy picture of the power sector as consumers groan under outages nationwide

Listed as their major challenges are N1.644 trillion owed them by a federal agency, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET); lack of access to credit facilities and absence of a foreign technical partner.

Executive Secretary of the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Dr Joy Ogaji, who highlighted the challenges, also said there has not been subsidy on electricity since the privatisation of the power sector in 2013.

Ogaji put the nation’s current electricity generation at 4,000Megawatts and blamed the development on poor management of the power grid.

“Currently today, we are owed by N1.644 trillion since 2013. One of the reasons that the power plants are down is due to inefficient management of the grid,” she told reporters.

The APGC spokesman recalled that power generating plants were doing better when they were managed by a technical expert, Marek Martin.

She, therefore, advised the Federal Government to recall Martin, who according to her, developed tools that enabled the plants to work above average.

Her words: “Recently, you must have heard that Egbin in Lagos lost several units. When Marcel Martin was in Nigeria, he developed tools that were used to manage the grid by both the generation companies and distribution companies.

She also lamented that the GenCos exhausted all their borrowing sources after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned banks against lending to them.

The Executive Secretary noted that were the thermal plants working optimally, the GenCos would produce about 9,000MW.

Asked how many MWs the GenCos could generate if the thermal plants were working optimally, she replied:,”If you give us gas, provide FOREX to carry out maintenance. I have told you most of the units are down and money is needed to fix them.

“Give us enough money to pay our gas suppliers because it is prepayment. But for power, it takes and pays later. There is no way that this misalignment will help us.

“The GenCos have exhausted all their lines of credit. You will remember in 2015 to 2016, the CBN told all the commercial banks not to lend money to the power sector again because we are not good at paying back.

“If the government can clear our outstanding debts, give us foreign exchange to maintain our plants, we are ready to generate up to 8,000 to 9,000MW mechanically. That is if transmission and distribution are willing to take.”

On electricity subsidy, she said: “We have not been given any subsidy.I say this because if the government has in the past brought N701billion; N601billion; N213billion, these are all monies geared towards our outstanding invoices.

“What we know is that part of our debts was paid through those facilities.”