MDAs Must Stop Owing Electricity Companies: A Call for Accountability and Timely Payment

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) issued a 10-day disconnection notice to 86 strategic Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to settle their massive N47.1 billion electricity debt as of December 2023.

The list of top debtors includes State House, Abuja, with a debt of N923.87 million.

Other prominent debtors are the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Federal Ministry of Finance, Niger State Abuja Liaison Office, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This situation is not new; MDAs’ debts have become routine. In July 2021, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) reported that the federal government verified N48 billion as MDAs’ debts from between 2015 to 2020, while N61 billion was not.

The Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies owe an estimated N93 billion.

The Nigerian Army owes an estimated sum of N48.9 billion; the Navy – N11 billion, Police – almost N6.6 billion; and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) – N1.1 billion.

Other MDAs include the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice.

After receiving the disconnection threat, the debtors have started making payments.

The State House announced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval for the payment of N342,352,217.46.

However, it is unfortunate that it took a threat to prompt this action. The State House should have paid its debts without prompting.

On February 23, 2024, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, visited the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, in Abuja appealing for the liquidation of the army’s N42 billion electricity debt.

The minister said the debt would be restructured, not written off, contingent on regular payments by the army.

It is good that the MDAs are making moves to pay. However, it is scandalous that they owed in the first place.

These strategic institutions should have led by example.

Furthermore, what has happened to the concurrent budgetary allocations for such payments, which are permanent features of every budget? Why would agencies with such budgetary allocations refuse to meet their obligations? And why has nobody been punished for non-payment of the debts? This raises the issue of the conduct of our public institutions and how they fail to live up to basic responsibilities.

It seems the MDAs, especially military and security agencies, are taking advantage of the sensitivity of their activities and offices and daring the DisCos to disconnect them.

This attitude falls short of the same standards for which households, other local consumers, and small businesses are held.

We, at Daily Trust, condemn state institutions that ignore payment for utilities they have enjoyed.

To even owe the debt in the first place is part of the malaise and dysfunction in the system.

We, therefore, call for urgent verification and reconciliation of these debts.

We also implore the debtor MDAs to understand the damaging effects of their debts on the power sector and to pay up immediately.

The refusal by citizens and agencies alike to pay debts is part of what has worsened liquidity concerns for electricity companies and contributed to the decline in development within the sector.

This also contributes to poor service delivery as Nigerians continue to record decreasing access to electricity combined with estimated billing and other unfair practices.

We also urge the DisCos to do more towards collecting their debts as and when due.

They should work on metering these MDAs and consider the use of automated pre-paid services for them.