The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs. Olu Verheijen, has said a N4 trillion bond programme has received anticipatory approval from President Tinubu to address the liquidity shortfall in the sector.
Verheijen disclosed this after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with the Chairman of the Association of Power Generation Companies, led by Col. Sani Bello (rtd), and prominent stakeholders in the country’s power sector at the Presidential Villa on Friday.
The Special Adviser to the President, Ms. Verheijen, attributed the liquidity crisis, which amounts to N4 trillion debt owed to GenCos, to “a combination of unfunded tariff shortfalls and market shortfalls” that have built up over a decade.
According to her, as of April 2025, the Federal Government is carrying a verified exposure of N4 trillion in debts to GENCOs, an accumulation dating back to 2015.
“We have since sat with 27 GENCOs, not all of them are here today and reviewed their PPAs and gas sales agreements to understand the legitimacy of their claims. The GENCOs claimed about N4 trillion from 2015 to the end of 2023,” she said.
She noted that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), the agency that contractually mediates between GENCOs and the government, has validated N1.8 trillion of these claims so far.
“Since that period, we have had N200 billion in unfunded subsidies that have accumulated the federal government’s liability.
“So, as of April 2025, the total exposure that we are carrying at the moment is N4 trillion,” she added.
However, Ms. Verheijen cautioned that the figure remains subject to downward revision, pending final validation.
She noted that only the amounts that the federal government validly owes would make it into the issuance by the Debt Management Office.
“While there is an anticipatory approval of this N4 trillion bond programme, it is subject to negotiations and final settlement of agreements. Only the amounts that the federal government validly owes are the things that will make it into the issuance by DMO,” she explained.
Earlier, DAILY POST appealed to GenCos for more time for validation and payment of the N4 trillion legacy debts.
The visit comes as GenCos threatened to shut down the country’s power sector over the debt owed them by the federal government.
