The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, has defended Nigeria’s continued electricity supply to Togo despite ongoing domestic shortages.

Oduntan explained that the supply is based on an existing bilateral agreement with the neighbouring country, stressing that the deal must be honoured.

He made this known during an interview with Nairametrics on Monday.

His remarks come as Nigerians continue to grapple with erratic power supply and widespread outages.

Oduntan emphasised that Nigeria’s commitment to its bilateral agreements is not influenced by sentiment.

He said, “Nigeria has an obligation to fulfill bilateral agreements. So, this is without sentiment. The situation we are in today is just a situation that has to do with the legacy of gas constraints preventing generation companies from producing more electricity. That’s the situation we are in.

“And the government said they are working to resolve the matter to make payments. It’s about money. So, if we stop giving electricity to Togo, what happens?

“How much electricity do we give to Togo compared to what we need? So, it doesn’t work like that, whether it’s Niger or Togo, as long as those countries pay for what they buy. It’s even sustaining us in a way.”

He added that revenue from electricity exports helps distribution companies manage their liquidity challenges.

“If you have domestic customers who don’t pay, who steal energy, and you have international customers who pay, and if they do so regularly, in a way, it will help our liquidity crisis.

“What I think the government needs to do, which they said they are doing, is to ensure an incremental generation of electricity. And to generate more, we need to pay all stakeholders.

“So, all these sentiments and political talks that ‘they are giving power to Togo, why can’t they stop that?’ — it’s a bilateral agreement. When you have a contract, you have to respect the sanctity of the contract. You don’t just wake up and say you’re no longer interested,” Oduntan noted.

Togo has expressed interest in increasing its electricity imports from Nigeria through the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, as it moves to meet rising domestic demand.

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Jennifer Adighije, disclosed this in a statement released last week after receiving officials from Togo’s national electricity utility for talks on expanding existing power cooperation.

The visiting delegation from Compagnie Énergie Électrique du Togo was led by its Director General, Débo K’mba Barandao, who said the country currently imports about 75 megawatt-hours of electricity from the Nigerian firm under a bilateral supply agreement.