The Presidency on Tuesday explained Nigeria entered electricity power export agreements with some of her neighbouring countries so that they would not build dams on the path of River Niger.

Nigeria is in bilateral agreements with Republic of Togo, Benin Republic and Niger Republic, causing Nigeria to sell electricity power to the countries.

River Niger courses through these countries.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the Presidency also said the total indebtedness of Niger to Nigeria is $ 16 million, while Benin owes $ four million.

The statement also added the actual cost of electricity generated within 2018-2019 by all the electricity generation companies in Nigeria was about N1.2 trillion ($4 billion).

The statement was reacting to a new report by a national newspaper, alleging the trio of Togo, Benin and Niger owed a debt in power purchase to Nigeria to the tune of $81.48 billion while most parts of Nigeria are in darkness.

Describing the report as hyperbolic and terribly misleading, the Presidency said that apart from the fact the figure quoted was far from accurate, out-dated and not reflective of the current reality, the overall cost of power generated and sold by Nigeria in the period covered by report was not anywhere close to what was mentioned by the paper.

According to the statement:

“Power exported to Niger, Benin and Togo based on Multilateral Energy Sales Agreement with the Government of Nigeria is on the basis that they would not dam the waters that feed our major power plants in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba.

“As of the last review in 2019, the amount of indebtedness to all three customers stood at $69 million, subsequent upon which several payments were made to NBET. Much of this has been repaid by the debtor nations.

“As of today, Niger owes only $16 million and Benin, USD $ million, adding up to the Naira equivalent of about N1.2bn.

“The essence of said bilateral agreements, by which we give them power and they do not build dams on the River Niger means that Nigeria and her brotherly neighbours had avoided the unfolding situation of the Nile River between the sovereign states of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.”