The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked banks to take responsibility for collecting electricity bill payments.
In
a circular dated August 21, Bello Hassan, CBN’s director of banking
supervision, said taking over from electricity distribution companies
will improve payment discipline in the industry.
“The payment or
settlement of all NESI related goods or services shall be made through
the Nigerian banking system,” the circular read.
“Consequently,
all collections for the payments of NESI regulated goods and services
provided by a DisCo shall be paid into a designated account such that
collections arising from services rendered by the DisCo shall be paid
into an account in the sole name of the DisCo; collections arising from
services rendered by a third party/parties on behalf of the DisCo shall
be paid into an account in the joint name of the DisCo and the
third-party vendor(s)
“All energy and non-energy collections of
DisCos, whether cash or cashless, shall only be performed by deposit
money banks (DMBs). No entity shall be permitted to collect revenues for
DisCos except if that entity is so authorized by a DMB in line with the
relevant CBN guidelines for agent banking and agent banking
relationships.
“Therefore, the DMB shall be permitted to
authorize its agents to collect energy and non-energy payments on its
behalf for any DisCo; the actions or inactions of the agent shall be the
responsibility of the authorizing DMB. Any DMB found to be maintaining
any account(s) for any entity collecting payments on behalf of any DisCo
without appropriate authorization shall have regulatory actions imposed
on it.”
The apex bank also directed that banks providing bank
guarantees to Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc and the
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on behalf of DisCos, would take
full responsibility for the collections and the remittances of the
DisCos to both NBET and TCN.
“For the avoidance of doubt, no DMB
is permitted to open or continue to maintain a collection account for a
DisCo without the express no-objection of the DMB that guaranteed its
exposure to NBET or TCN,” it said.
According to the latest
quarterly report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC), the collection efficiency by the DisCos is low and has continued
to adversely impact the financial liquidity of the industry.
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