DisCos urges National Assembly to intervene in liquidity crisis in power sector

The Electricity Distribution Companies have appealed to the National Assembly to intervene in the current liquidity crisis in the power sector.
Sunday Oduntan, the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors made the appeal in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently notified eight DisCos that it would cancel their licences within 60 days.
This is due to defaults on its non-remittances of #27.7 billion energy invoice to the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company for July billing cycle.
The affected DisCos are Abuja, Ikeja, Benin, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Port-Harcourt and Yola.
Oduntan said that the DISCOs would be needing N8.7 billion to comply with the remittance order set by NERC.
According to him, the breakdown of the required amount shows that the DisCos will require a monthly amount of N725 million to meet the threshold of 35 per cent remittance level set by NERC in the meantime.
“To meet the new remittance expectations, DisCos will have to finance an average gap of N725 million per month (estimated at N8.7 billion per year) until increased collections bridge the gap.
“The DisCos were expected to do a minimum remittance of N12.69 billion, about 35 per cent for the July , 2019 billing cycle from a total N35.79 billion, invoice from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, showed the DisCos actually remitted N8.06 billon.