The Federal Government says it has paid $120m out of the $1.3bn owed gas firms for the supply of gas for the running of power plants in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s power generation has dropped in recent weeks. According to the Minister of Power Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the development was due to gas suppliers stopping the supply of gas for the generation of electricity over the indebtedness of the sector to producers.

But during the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit, the Director, Decade of Gas Secretariat Ed Ubong said the Federal Government has paid part of the debts.

“As of last year, that (gas debts) was about $1.3bn, depending on how you add up the numbers. But I am pleased that between October and the end of January, the government has paid over $120m to offset some of that money,” Ubong said in Abuja on Thursday.

He said: “More importantly, the government is also now working on a framework that can mitigate most of that failure. That’s a piece of work that is ongoing and we hope that it will be approved and then the industry can move away from that legacy issue.

“We must build capacity for that. Capacity for the engineers, and technicians that will work in this new gas sector that we are looking at for the next eight months. And as the secretary, we are committed to that,” Ubong added.