Peter Uzoho
An energy expert and Chief Executive Officer of New Hampshire Capital Limited, Mr. Odion Omonfoman has accused the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of operating a “black-box” internal finance system despite mandating detailed transparency from electricity distribution companies (Discos) under the Electricity Act 2023.
He also called on the Minister of Power, Mr. Joseph Tegbe, to use his oversight role to direct the commission to upload corporate audited financial statements for 2023 and 2024, and previous years, onto its public website immediately.
In his opinion piece obtained by THISDAY, Omonfoman said NERC publishes meticulous quarterly and annual reports that show Discos’ billing efficiency, energy collection metrics, market remittance tracking, and Aggregate Technical, Commercial, and Collection (ATC&C) losses.
But he argued that beneath that “mountain of industry data lies an important data gap”, which is that NERC’s own financial statements are missing from public reports.
Omonfoman said NERC’s quarterly and annual reports do not include the Commission’s Internally Generated Revenues (IGR), operational costs, executive remunerations, and final net surpluses.
“In my opinion, NERC’s internal finances can be best described as a black-box to the public,” he stated. NERC did not respond to these allegations as of the time of filing in this report.
The expert referenced Section 53 of the Electricity Act 2023, which details NERC’s statutory funding sources.
According to him, they include core operating funds made up of fees and charges from licensees, National Assembly allocations, and other operational funds such as technical assistance and grants from the World Bank and other Development Finance Institutions.
He said NERC also administers regulatory funds such as the Meter Asset Finance scheme and the Transmission Infrastructure Fund.
Despite this, Omonfoman said NERC’s 2023 and 2024 Annual Report & Accounts, while claiming to present audited financial statements in Chapter 8, do not contain the actual documents in downloadable public versions on its website.
He noted the 2024 report said KPMG audited accounts for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the 2023 report said PricewaterhouseCoopers audited accounts for year ended 31 December 2023.
“A review of the downloadable public versions of both the 2023 and 2024 Annual Report & Accounts on NERC’s website do not contain a signed independent auditor’s report, a statement of financial position, a statement of financial performance or income and expenditure, a cash flow statement, accounting policies, notes to the accounts, or schedules explaining NERC’s revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities and operating surplus,” he wrote.
Omonfoman argued that financial transparency in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) cannot be a one-way street. “NERC enforces open-book accounting on operators while keeping its own balance sheet in the dark,” he said.
He referenced Section119(3) of the Electricity Act, which requires licensees to publish quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including financial data and customer service information on official websites.
“The same principle should apply to the regulator. If Discos must publish service delivery and financial performance data for public scrutiny, NERC should not make its own audited accounts difficult to locate. The standard set for the market should be met by the institution that sets and enforces that standard,” Omonfoman stated.