According to a report from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), none of the four international bilateral customers supplied by Nigeria's power generation companies made payments against the cumulative invoice of $14.19 million issued for services rendered in the first quarter of 2024.

The foreign companies involved include Para-SBEE in Benin Republic, which owes $3.15 million; Transcorp-SBEE in Benin, with a debt of $4.46 million; Mainstream-NIGELEC in Togo, responsible for $1.21 million; and Odukpani-CEET in Togo, which owes $5.36 million.

In addition, local bilateral customers did not remit payments against a cumulative invoice of 1.86 million Naira issued by the market operator for the same period.

However, the report noted that some bilateral customers, both international and local, made payments during the quarter for outstanding invoices from previous periods.

Specifically, two international customers paid a total of $5.96 million, while eight local bilateral customers contributed 505.71 million Naira towards settling debts incurred prior to the first quarter of 2024.

The NERC has expressed concern over what it describes as "payment indiscipline" among both local and international bilateral customers. The commission has indicated that it expects the market operator to take necessary actions as outlined in market rules to address this issue.