Tinubu meets GENCOs chairmen, vows to settle debts

President Bola Tinubu has appealed to power generation companies (GENCOs) to give the federal government more time to complete the verification and validation of longstanding debts owed to them.

Tinubu made the appeal during a meeting with members of the Association of Power Generation Companies, led by Col. Sani Bello (rtd), at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday, July 25, 2025.

The president assured the companies of his administration’s commitment to resolving the liquidity challenges in the power sector.

Tinubu acknowledged the historic liabilities inherited from previous administrations and pledged transparency and fairness in addressing them.

Tinubu said: “I accept the assets and liabilities of my predecessors, and there is no question about that. But that acceptance must be on credible grounds.

“I need to wear the audit cap of verifiability, authenticity, and the fact that this inheritance is not a mere deodorant but a support structure for critical economic and industrial promotion.”

Tinubu also emphasised the need for patience from GENCOs and financial institutions, noting that government agencies are actively engaging audit and legal firms to scrutinise the claims.

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“We are here. So market it to your other colleagues. Give us time to do verification and validation of the numbers,” he said.

The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, disclosed that a N4 trillion bond programme has received anticipatory approval from President Tinubu to address the liquidity shortfall in the sector.

She stated that as of April 2025, the federal government is carrying a verified exposure of N4 trillion in debts to GENCOs, an accumulation dating back to 2015.

“We have since sat with 27 GENCOs – not all of them are here today – and reviewed their PPAs and gas sales agreements to understand the legitimacy of their claims. The GENCOs claimed about N4 trillion from 2015 to the end of 2023,” Verheijen said.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, commended Tinubu for the attention given to the power sector, stating that the administration’s reforms have restored investor confidence and improved performance across the electricity value chain.

In separate remarks, business leaders Tony Elumelu and Kola Adesina appealed for urgent intervention to preserve operations and encourage further investment in the sector.

“Mr. President, we’ve come to you as a last hope. The generating companies are heavily indebted to banks, and foreclosure threats are real, not because we’re not doing our jobs, but because the system owes us trillions,” Elumelu said.

The Star