The Federal Government has disclosed that 53.85% of registered electricity customers across Nigeria remain unmetered.
This was made known in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) third quarter (Q3) of 2024 report.
“As of 30th September 2024, 6,156,726 (46.15%) out of the 13,339,635 registered electricity customers across the twelve (12) DisCos were metered,” the Commission said.
According to the NERC, the country has a total of 13,339,635 registered electricity customers across the twelve (12) DisCos out of which 7,182,909 are yet to be metered.
This represents 53.85% of electricity customers across the country.
The Commission also noted that “184,507 end-user customers were metered across all the Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos with Ikeja, Ibadan, and Abuja DisCos recording the highest number of meter installations – they accounted for 25.45%, 21.48%, and 14.61% respectively, of the total installations.”
“Relative to 2024/Q2 when 51,826 customers were metered, there was a +256.01% increase in the total number of customers metered in 2024/Q3.
“All DisCos except Aba (-43.90%), Kaduna (-24.69%) and Jos (-9.31%) recorded improvements in the number of meter installations. Eko, Ibadan, Ikeja and Benin DisCos recorded the greatest improvements of +2,120%, +575.60%, +417.40%, and +389.32% respectively in the number of meter installations compared to 2024/Q2.”
In October 2024, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had announced that the federal government has procured 1.8 million meters to address the issue of estimated billing nationwide with the first batch expected by December 2024, and the final batch to arrive by the second quarter of 2025.
“The fund is already being raised to ensure that we procure a minimum of 3 million meters over the five years, at an annual average of 2 million meters per annum. Secondly, we have the support of our international development partner, the World Bank, to procure about 3.5 million meters within the next two to three years.
“Out of that, 1.8 million meters have already been procured. The contract has been signed and the payment has been made. We are expecting delivery of a part of this in the next two months, precisely December 2024.
“The balance will be delivered before the end of the second quarter of 2025. With this, we believe that the days of estimated billing are getting over gradually,” Adelabu said.
In November 2024, NERC directed distribution companies (DisCos) to replace obsolete meters for their customers at no cost following reports of some electricity companies requiring customers to pay to replace Unistar prepaid meters.
In December 2024, the Presidency called on the Minister of Power to prioritize the acceleration of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) as part of ongoing efforts to reform Nigeria’s power sector.
