The Federal Ministry of Power is proposing to spend N8 billion to orient Nigerians on prompt payment of electricity bills in 2025.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this while defending the ministry’s budget before the National Assembly joint committee on power on Monday, January 13.

According to Adelabu, the advocacy would be done through social, digital and print mediums in order to reach all Nigerians. Adelabu explained that many Nigerians need orientation to realise that the power sector is a national asset that needs protection.

“We are a people of over 200 million strength. So we need to go through all the loopholes, through social media, through digital media, through the print media, to actually orientate and do this advocacy. So we have N8 billion.

In terms of advocacy, we believe that our people need to be re-educated. They need to be re-orientated to know that the power assets are national assets, and we should all jointly own it.

Our people need to know that they should avoid power theft. When they see something, they must say something. Our people need to know that they must pay their bills regularly. All these need to be passed across. We believe that the power sector needs to do a lot of advocacy, re-orientation and re-education of our people” Adelabu said

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said that the national electricity grid will remain prone to collapse.

According to the Minister, this was due to the government’s inability to repair a crucial transmission line in the northern part of the country owing to persistent insecurity.

Adelabu said this on Monday during the 2025 budget defense session with the Senate Joint Committee on Power.

The Minister said that the Shiroro-Kaduna-Mando line, which had been out of service since a vandalism incident in October 2024, had caused immeasurable loss to the nation.

He pointed to this as a major reason for the frequent collapse of the national grid.

“The Kaduna-Shiroro-Mando line was one of the two major lines transmitting power to the north.

“The second, the Ugwuaji-Makurdi line, was also vandalized but has been repaired.

“The Shiroro-Mando-Kaduna line, however, remains down due to insecurity.

“This is why our grid is so fragile, as it relies on a single line, causing unnecessary strain,” he said.

Adelabu said the government can only work on quicker restoration when the power grid collapses.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is planning to take drastic measures to end the lingering dispute between telcos and banks over the unstructured supplementary service data (USDD) debt, TheCable understands.

Sources close to the conversation said the commission may suspend the USSD service and publish a list of banks still owing telcos for the service.

If this happens, the USSD channel will no longer be available for banking services.

Although it is uncertain when the suspension will be officially announced, the list of defaulters may be published before the week ends.

The development, which may be part of the federal government’s efforts to address industry challenges, comes amid telcos’ push for a tariff hike.

USSD DEBT HAS RISEN BY 681.2% SINCE 2019

Analysis of media reports shows that the USSD debt has risen by 681.2 percent since 2019, leading to many threats of service withdrawal by telecoms operators.

On March 12, 2021, telcos threatened to suspend the USSD service over N42 billion debt accumulated by banks (the amount was N32 billion in 2019). The move was, however, halted by Isa Pantami, former minister of communications and digital economy.

The telcos and banks eventually agreed on March 16, 2021, to adjust the charge on customers to N6.98k for each USSD transaction.

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said the USSD debt was N80 billion as at November 2022.

By November 16, 2023, the debt, according to telcos, had risen to N200 billion — up from N120 billion in May of the same year.

On October 22, 2024, Gbolahan Awonuga, the executive secretary of ALTON, said the amount had increased to N250 billion.

TheCable understands the NCC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other stakeholders have been engaging to find a lasting solution to the impasse, but efforts at resolving the matter have had little results.

The CBN and the NCC, on December 24, 2024, directed mobile network operators (MNOs) and deposit money banks (DMBs) to settle the protracted debt conflict, asking financial institutions to pay 85 percent of all outstanding invoices by December 31, 2024.

’18 BANKS STILL OWING AS AT DECEMBER 31′

However, a source told TheCable that about 18 banks are yet to pay their debt, while four had paid as at December 31.

Another source said the commission believes that the banks are treating the issue with levity, hence they want the public to be aware of the imminent USSD suspension.

Speaking on the agency’s plan to publish the names of financial institutions still owing, he said the public notice will be addressed to customers, stating that “the underlisted banks are yet to pay”.

It is understood that with the public notice, the NCC intends to give the consumers two weeks to come up with their alternative plans for making transactions, while banks would also get two weeks to pay the outstanding debt or be disconnected.