TheCable

The federal executive council (FEC) has approved the payment of N25.99 billion debt owed by ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to electricity distribution companies (DisCos).

The amount is part of the N67.41 billion the discos said they were being owed by the MDAs.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, divulged this to state house reporters shortly after the FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa on Wednesday.

Rising claims of debts owed by the government to DisCos prompted a verification exercise where it was discovered that part of the said amount was actually owed by states, local governments, and corporate entities.

Hence it was agreed that government would only pay verified sums from its coffers after the verification exercise was completed.

“We have concluded the verification and we now ask council to approve the verified sum of N25.994bn owed by MDAs of the federal government to be paid to the DisCos out of the claims of N67.41bn,” Fashola said.

“So, there is a differential of about N41bn. That differential arises first because some of the claims do not belong to the federal government.

“Some are owed by states and local governments. Also, some belong to public international organisations and were classified as government debts,” he remarked.

Pointing to the unremitted funds for energy that DisCos owed the federal government, Fashola said that “they (DisCos) are owing about N500 billion”.