Neighbouring countries such as Benin and Togo have defaulted on more than half of their electricity payments to Nigeria for power supplied in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). In its Second Quarter 2025 Report, NERC revealed that six international bilateral customers who receive electricity from Nigerian generation companies remitted only $9.01 million out of a total invoice of $17.54 million issued by the Market Operator for services rendered during the period. This resulted in an outstanding balance of about $8.53 million, reflecting a remittance performance of 51.33 per cent. The report identified Benin’s Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique (SBEE), Togo’s Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), and Niger’s NIGELEC as the major international buyers. Mainstream Energy Solutions, for instance, received $2.59 million out of a $3.71 million invoice issued to NIGELEC, representing a 69.8 per cent payment rate. However, CEET made no remittance for its $4.31 million power bill, while SBEE, which sources electricity from Transcorp and Paras Energy, also failed to settle its invoice in full. “The six international bilateral customers being supplied by GenCos in the NESI made a payment of $9.01m against the cumulative invoice of $17.54m issued by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to a remittance performance of 51.33 per cent,” NERC said. It added that the domestic bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of N1.4bn against the invoice of N2.8bn issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2025/Q2, translating to 50.10 per cent remittance performance. In total, Transcorp (Ughelli)–SBEE was the only contract that achieved full remittance, paying its entire $5.47m invoice. Others, including Paras–SBEE, Paras–CEET and Odukpani–CEET, recorded zero payment for the period. NERC added that one of the domestic bilateral customers made partial settlements for older invoices outside the quarter under review. “It is noteworthy that one domestic bilateral customer made payments during 2025/Q2 for outstanding MO invoices from previous quarters. The MO received N10.53m from Trans-Amadi (OAU/FMPI) towards outstanding invoices from previous quarters,” the report stated.