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Over 4m Electricity Customers Remain Unmetered – NERC
Over 4.8 million electricity customers in Nigeria remained without meters as of June 2026, despite electricity distribution companies metering 308,106 customers in May and June, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said.
The latest NERC metering factsheet showed that 104,585 customers were metered in May, while another 203,521 customers were metered in June.
The figures represent a 94.6 per cent increase in the number of customers metered monthly, with the number rising from 104,585 in May to 203,521 in June.
The development pushed the national metering rate from 60.22 per cent in May to 61.51 per cent in June. According to the factsheet, the total number of active electricity customers also increased from 12,520,435 in May to 12,589,486 in June.
Similarly, the number of metered customers rose from 7,540,318 in May to 7,743,839 in June. Despite the increase in metering, 4,845,647 electricity customers remained without meters as of June, representing about 38.5 per cent of the total active customer base.
The data showed that Eko Electricity Distribution Company recorded the highest metering rate in June at 88.70 per cent, followed by Ikeja Electric at 87.91 per cent and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company at 81.38 per cent.
Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company recorded a metering rate of 68.66 per cent, while Benin DisCo stood at 61.01 per cent. At the lower end, Jos DisCo had a metering rate of 35.42 per cent, followed by Yola at 36.20 per cent, Kaduna at 39.83 per cent and Kano at 40.67 per cent.
Ibadan DisCo recorded the highest number of newly metered customers in June with 80,643, followed by Kano with 44,753, Benin with 18,739 and Abuja with 18,419.
However, NERC noted that the June figures marked with an asterisk included meter installations carried out between January and May 2026 that had not previously been reported by the respective DisCos.
The regulator’s data further showed that the number of unmetered customers fell from 4,980,117 in May to 4,845,647 in June, representing a reduction of 134,470 customers.
The continued metering drive comes amid efforts to reduce estimated billing and improve transparency in electricity billing across the country. Last year, NERC accused DisCos of not doing enough in metering, revealing that there were hundreds of meters available in the country.
The commission challenged utilities to improve publicity and rollout speed, noting that the government has made the investment, so the DisCos need to step up. It advised the DisCos to stop behaving as if they were doing customers a favour.
Reviewing the data on Meter Asset Provider refunds and installations, the commission highlighted the “poor performance” of specific utilities. Addressing the backlog of paid-for but uninstalled meters, NERC rejected technical excuses, saying, “If your network is not ready for metering, do not collect people’s money.”
It further observed that for every transformer or meter not installed, DisCos incur losses; hence, it is in their interest to meter customers and fix transformer-related issues.
