Daily Watch – Nigeria has only 1.6M prepaid meter users, External debt rises 114% in 3 years

5th September 2018

  • The Assistant President and Board Member of the China National Petroleum Corporation, Wang Shihong have pledged on behalf of the corporation’s six subsidiaries to collaborate with the NNPC for its $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project. Shihong assured NNPC’s GMD, Maikanti Baru, that the CNPC remains committed towards securing funds for the successful implementation of the pipeline project. Shihong said. The NNPC noted that the AKK pipeline project funding received a boost during a high-level meeting between the NNPC and CNPC management held on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing.
  • The NBS has released the Power Sector Report for Q2 2018. The report which shows energy generated, sent out, consumed and load allocation indicates that power stations in Nigeria generated a total average of 81,561Mwh of energy in Q2 2018. According to the NBS, Nigerian daily energy generation during the period under review peaked at 98,573Mwh on April 18, 2018. Nigeria’s lowest daily energy generation in Q2 2018 was 52,074 MWh of energy attained on June 9, 2018. The report also shows that the total number of consumers with prepaid meters in Q2 stood at 1.62 million, an increase of 1.59% from 1.59 million customers in Q1. Of the 1.62 million prepaid-metered customers, Benin Disco accounted for the highest number, 282,868, followed by Abuja Disco with 270,918 metered customers and Ibadan Disco with 254,261. With a total of 37,329 customers, Yola Disco is the smallest.
  • Data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria’s external debt commitment rose by $11.77bn in the last three years, rising from $10.32 billion on June 30, 2015 to $22.08 billion as of June 30 this year, an increase of 114.05 per cent. Most of the increases in the last three years are commercial loans, which rose from $1.5 billion in 2015 to $8.8 billion this year, a 486.67 per cent increase. Multilateral debts make up $10.88 billion (49.28 per cent) of the country’s external debt profile, with the World Bank responsible for 38.36 per cent of the country’s foreign portfolio. A major highlight in the DMO’s data was the decrease in the FG’s domestic debt, which declined from ₦12.59 trillion in December 2017 to ₦12.58 trillion in March, and then ₦12.15 trillion in June 2018. The DMO said the reduction in the FGN’s Domestic Debt Stock arose from the redemption of ₦198 billion Nigerian Treasury Bills in December 2017 and another ₦639 billion between January and June 2018.
  • The attorney-general, Abubakar Malami, has written to MTN Nigeria demanding a payment of $2 billion in tax arrears. According to Malami, the arrears cover import duties, VAT and withholding taxes on foreign imports/payments. The AGF said his office made a “high-level calculation” that MTN should have paid approximately $2 billion in taxes relating to the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers since 2008. He requested MTN to do a self-assessment of the taxes. Multiple reports indicate that MTN did an initial assessment showing that total payments already made to the tax authorities in regard to these foreign imports and transfers are $700 million, and replied Malami that there were valid reasons for the differences between the actual payments and government’s assessment. However, Malami has rejected the assessment and asked MTN to pay the $2 billion in full.