Nigeria threatens to stop supplying power to Togo, Benin, and Niger, for non-payment of debts
Monday, 16 December 2019 14:20 
(Togo First) - As its neighbors already suffer from the closure of its borders with Benin and Niger, Nigeria threatens to stop supplying power to Togo, Benin, and Niger if they fail to pay outstanding debts of $16 million they owe the giant.
Initially, Togo and Benin owed Nigeria more than $100 million but paid most of it and “it remains only $14 million,” according to Usman Mohammed, Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), who issued the threat. “Niger owes less than $2 million and we are not leaving them,” Mohammed said.
“We will disconnect them as we disconnect people around here. Electricity is not charity,” he declared.
Usman Mohammed is also president of the West African Power Pool (WAPP). The latter is an institution of the ECOWAS whose purpose is to integrate national power networks into a unique regional power market.
The most important power transmission line of this market, which regroups 14 countries, should be operational by 2020. It will facilitate the transport of electricity from producing countries to nations with low access to power.
While next year will be a decisive year for the implementation of this market, a major challenge to the project is irregular payments by various commercial partners in the region. Back in 2016, outstanding debts were so high that the WAPP put in place a workgroup tasked with collecting the debts.
Nigeria’s repeated threats for the non-payment of outstanding debts by its neighbors perfectly illustrates the situation. In July 2018, after many warnings from Abuja, Togo started taking measures to clear its debts.
It should be recalled that the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) provides 300 MW of electricity to Togo, Benin, and Niger.
