DisCos Improve Metering Rate with 20.6% Growth in Q2 — NERC

Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCos) installed 225,631 meters in the second quarter of 2025, representing a 20.55 per cent increase from the 187,161 meters installed in the first quarter of the year.

This update was contained in the Second Quarter 2025 Report released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

According to the report, 147,823 meters, representing 65.52 per cent of the total installations, were deployed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework, while 65,315 meters were installed under the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) scheme. Additionally, 12,259 meters were installed through the Vendor Financed framework, and 234 meters were deployed under the DisCo Financed scheme.

Despite this progress, the report revealed that only 6,422,933 of the 11,821,194 active registered customers in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) had been metered as of June 2025. This leaves the national metering rate at 54.33 per cent, meaning nearly half of electricity consumers remain unmetered and subject to estimated billing.

To mitigate the impact on unmetered customers, NERC said it has continued to enforce the monthly energy cap policy, which limits the amount of energy that can be billed to unmetered consumers.

“This policy sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer each month based on the total energy received by the DisCo and the consumption of metered customers on the same feeders,” the Commission explained.

The report also highlighted a reduction in the number of complaints received across all DisCo Customer Complaints Units (CCUs). A total of 227,267 complaints were recorded in Q2 2025 — a 10.67 per cent decline from the 254,404 recorded in the previous quarter.

However, NERC noted that only 1,129 of the 2,474 complaints received at its Central Complaint Unit (CCU) were resolved, representing a resolution rate of 45.63 per cent, which the Commission described as below satisfactory levels. The majority of complaints were related to metering, billing, and service interruptions — issues that have consistently dominated customer concerns.

The Commission added that two Forum Offices were closed during the quarter, reducing the total number of active offices to 24 from 26 in the previous quarter. It recorded 1,418 active appeals during the period — 1,040 new and 378 carried over from Q1 2025. Forum panels held 41 sittings and resolved 958 appeals, achieving a 67.56 per cent resolution rate, slightly lower than the 74.10 per cent achieved in Q1 2025.