Daily Trust had reported that about 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity are unutilised daily across the Generation Companies (GenCos) in Nigeria and could be exported.

Abdulaziz said Nigeria is expecting new generators to participate in the energy export for the 875 kilometres 330 kilovolts Northcore transmission line from Nigeria through Niger, Togo, Benin to Burkina Faso.

Abdulaziz said “The power we will be selling is the power that is not needed in Nigeria. These generators that are going to supply power to this transmission line are going to generate that power specifically for this project. So it is unutilised power. In addition, there are some communities that are under the line route, about 611 of them which will be getting power so that there won’t be just a transmission line passing without impact.  Nigeria has the greatest advantage among these countries because the electricity is going to be exported from Nigerian GenCos. So from that, the revenue is going to be enhanced and a lot of people will be employed in Nigeria.”

He disclosed that international electricity customers have accumulated a bill of over $100 million since he assumed office as he warned that they will get disconnected if they don’t pay up.

Mohammed said “It is not because I am the chairman of the West African Power Pool (WAAP) that I will be allowing international customers to cheat Nigeria. When I took over as MD TCN, both Benin and Togo were owing Nigeria more than $100 million. The debt now remains $7 million. Niger is owing less than $2 million. In short, we are not leaving them. We disconnect them as we disconnect customers here in Nigeria. Electricity is not charity. We cannot just allow people to consume electricity and leave us like that. As at now, we have restricted their supply to only their contracted ones. We are insisting they pay all their outstanding bills before we reconnect them and we increase the off-take.”