Nigeria Exports N23bn Electricity, Local Consumers Lament Outage

Power consumers, on Wednesday, kicked against the export of about N23.13bn worth of electricity from Nigeria to some neighbouring countries in 2022 despite the widespread darkness witnessed in many Nigerian communities.

The latest data on the remittances by international customers, obtained from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in Abuja, showed that Nigeria continued its export of electricity to the Republics of Benin and Niger, as well as some special categories of consumers.

It was observed that the total value of exported electricity from Nigeria in 2022 was $50.98m (N23.5bn, at the official exchange rate of N461/$ as of last year). But the international customers remitted $32.69m, an equivalent of N15.1bn.

This implies that they failed to remit a total of $18.29m or N8.4bn during the period, while the special customers also did not remit N792.6m in the same period, according to figures obtained from the power sector regulator.

Although some officials at NERC and other agencies in the power sector provided explanations as to why Nigeria was exporting power despite its poor supply in-country, electricity consumers kicked against the move.

“A World Bank report puts the total number of Nigerians that are not connected to the national electricity grid at about 90 million, out of about 220 million Nigerians. This is about the highest in the world.

“China, with a population of 1.4 or 1.5 billion people, has about 68 million Chinese persons who are not connected to electricity. Now, compare that to the 90 million people in Nigeria that are not electrified.

“But despite that, you are now exporting such a scarce commodity that your people desperately need. What kind of economic sense is that? When you hear such things you wonder whether it is on planet Earth that it is happening. The people behind that idea, what are they thinking?” the National Secretary, Nigeria Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network, Uket Obonga, told our correspondent.

PUNCH