Despite Power Shortage, Nigeria Supplied 2,327,151 Megawatts Of Electricity To Benin, Niger

Despite the shortage in power supply being experienced by Nigerians, Electricity Distribution Companies supplied a total of
2,327,151 Megawatts of electricity to Benin and Niger in 2019

The National Bureau of Statistics said this in a Report on the Power Sector.

A breakdown of the supplies according to the Report showed that Benin received a total of 1,278,344MWh while Niger got 1,048,807MWh of electricity during the period.

The Report also showed that a total of 33,448,633 megawatts of energy was generated by power stations in 2019.

It said the Privatized GeCos generated 19,692,683 MW, IPP GenCos generated 7,798,253 MWh while the NIPP GenCos generated 5,957,697MWh in 2019.

“Egbin recorded the highest energy generation with 3,786,313MWh accounting for 11.32 per cent while Alaoji NIPP recorded the lowest with 209,453MWh accounting for 0.63 per cent of total energy generated in 2019,” it stated.

According to the Report, the total energy sent out by GenCos stood at 32,799,114MWh.

It added, “Privatized GenCos sent out 19,233,151 MWh, IPP GenCos sent out 7,648,700 MWh while the NIPP GenCos sent out 5,917,262 MWh.”

“Energy consumed by the Eleven DisCos in 2019 stood at 28,026,503 MWh, Ikeja DisCo recorded the highest energy consumption with 4,087,971 MWh accounting for 14.95% per cent while Yola Disco recorded the lowest with 1,122,534MWh accounting for four per cent of total energy consumed in 2019.”

The Federal Government had blamed the problem in the power sector to the sales of power generation and distribution companies to incompetent investors

The Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed had said that the federal government had spent N1.7trn to subsidize electricity tariff after the previous administration sold and handed over to the investors.

He said the expenditure is no longer sustainable especially under the prevailing economic conditions.

He pointed out that the country’s revenue and foreign exchange earnings had dropped sharply by almost 60 per cent due to the downturn in the fortunes of the oil sector.

The minister revealed that the government did not have the resources to continue along the path of subsidizing electricity tariff to private companies.