The Ministry of Defence may have set aside N2.35 million probably to partly offset the N9.4 billion debts burden accumulated from electricity consumption bills across the various military formations in the country. There are high expectations that the provision of N2.35 billion in the ministry’s 2017 budget could probably be disbursed to part payment of the debt owed the electricity distribution companies.
These debts were said to have been accumulated by the three units of the country’s Armed forces over the years. The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, was gathered to have last year, acquainted the House of Representatives Committee on Defence of the accumulated debts on electricity consumption over the years by the various units of the Armed Forces because of the negligence of the services to pay their electricity bills.
The electricity debts of the Army, Navy and Air Force were indicated to be captured in the 2017 budget of the Ministry of Defence, which Dan-Ali presented to the National Assembly.
The presentation indicated that the unpaid electricity bills included: “PHCN (defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria) outstanding debt and subsequent bills by the successor DISCOs and the total debts is N9.4 billion.”