Bulk Trader Leads with N60billion for Capital Projects in 2016 Budget

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, NBET, has topped power agencies under the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in votes allocation as it will get N60.754 billion for capital projects.

It had N194.198m in the previous budget.

NBET helps to cushion what could be dislocations in bills payment by paying upfront to the relevant parties before the Discos collect electricity bills and pay back for power consumption.

The agency NBET had in late 2015 lamented the partial payment of power bills by the distribution companies (Discos), leading to accumulated debts for power generation and gas-to-power.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, described the situation, in his maiden briefing, as critical, saying the accumulating gas debt could jeopardise the improving power supply.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, which got N202.290m for capital projects in 2015, will not have any allocation this year.

It is expected that it gets 1.5 per cent of every collection in the electricity market to run its business, the newly approved electricity tariff shows.

The ministry has also earmarked about N293.296bn from a total of N467.645bn allocation to cater to the headquarters’ needs.