The Senate on Tuesday grilled the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) over the mounting debt crisis in the nation’s power sector, as lawmakers expressed concern over the growing financial strain across the electricity value chain.
During a session of the Senate Committee on Finance, the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NBET, Johnson Akinnawo, disclosed that outstanding liabilities in the power sector had risen to about N3 trillion.
The revelation prompted tough questions from senators on the agency’s performance, funding challenges and the persistent gap between electricity tariffs and the actual cost of power generation, transmission and distribution.
Lawmakers queried why the sector continued to accumulate debt despite repeated government interventions, noting that the shortfall between approved tariffs and real market costs had remained a major drag on the sustainability of the industry.
In his presentation, Akinnawo explained that regulatory income within the electricity market was designed to cover recurrent expenditure and help reduce overhead costs for operators across the value chain. He, however, acknowledged that funding constraints had significantly limited NBET’s capacity to meet its obligations.
The NBET chief further revealed that although the Federal Government appropriated N858 billion for the agency in the 2025 budget, only N60 million had so far been released, leaving a wide gap between planned funding and actual disbursement.
Members of the committee expressed dismay at the disparity, warning that inadequate funding of NBET could worsen liquidity problems in the sector and threaten reliable electricity supply. They also called for urgent reforms to address tariff distortions, improve market discipline and reduce the growing debt burden.
The Senate committee insisted that concrete steps must be taken to stabilise the power sector, stressing that without decisive action on funding, tariffs and efficiency, the N3 trillion debt could continue to rise, with serious consequences for the economy and electricity consumers nationwide.
