The federal government has in the past two to three days paid over N200bn for power supply in Nigeria,Mele Kyari,  the group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, declared on Wednesday.

Also, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, the umbrella body for Discos, has said the proposed two-month free electricity for customers announced by power distribution companies recently will cost a total of about N120bn.

Kyari spoke on the N200bn payment at the Abuja headquarters of the federal ministry of power after a meeting with the minister of power, Sale Mamman; managing director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Usman Mohammed; and managing director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Chiedu Ugbo; among others.

The NNPC boss stated that the payment would adequately help in settling the indebtedness of power generation firms to gas companies.

When asked what government was doing to resolve the non-payment for gas by power generation companies, Kyari said, “Actually the federal government has made payments of over N200bn for power in the last two to three days.

“This will go a long way in making sure that those payment issues are resolved. And we are engaging as a government and as a team to make sure that those payment issues are fully settled.”

He noted that gas supply for power generation had been increased by NNPC, adding that issues around power supply process were being resolved.