By Alphonsus E.W
About a month after private firms took over the management of Nigeria’s power sector; the companies are already defaulting in terms of making remittances to the Federal Government.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which made this known on Wednesday at a press briefing, threatened to sanction the errant firms if they failed to settle their debts before close of business on Thursday December, 5.
The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said the remittances were monies meant for services rendered to the companies by the government and directed the power firms to make the payment to the Electricity Market Operator (MO).
Amadi spoke at a news briefing at the commission’s office in Abuja.
He said, “The MO is the one that receives these remittances and will have up-to-date information on the amount so far remitted. But as of Monday, the report from the MO is that only about N2bn has been paid and N10bn is outstanding.
Dr. Amadi when quizzed about the reason behind the companies’ defaulting in their statutory obligation to the Federal Government being the enormous challenges they faced in the aftermath of their take-over, remarked, ”There are no valid excuses for not making remittances and we have written a letter to them giving a deadline of 4pm on Thursday. This is for all the remittances to be made to the MO’s account.”
