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By Godswill Michael
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has reported a marginal improvement in electricity metering across the country, but says a significant gap still persists despite the addition of 109,556 newly metered customers in December 2025.
According to the Commission’s latest Metering Status of Distribution Companies Factsheet for November and December 2025, the number of metered customers rose from 6,857,028 in November to 6,966,584 in December, reflecting the addition of 109,556 customers within the period.
The report released on Wednesday showed that total active electricity customers also increased slightly from 12,128,611 in November to 12,163,412 in December, indicating continued growth in the customer base.
Despite this progress, the national metering rate improved only marginally from 56.54 per cent in November to 57.27 per cent in December, underscoring what the Commission described as a persistent metering gap across electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
An analysis of the data reveals wide disparities in performance among the DisCos.
In December, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company recorded a metering rate of 77.81 per cent, up from 76.71 per cent in November, maintaining its position among the top performers.
Similarly, Ikeja and Eko DisCos posted some of the highest metering rates at 86.40 per cent and 85.87 per cent respectively, showing consistent improvement from their November figures of 85.91 per cent and 84.86 per cent.
Conversely, several DisCos continued to lag significantly behind. Jos DisCo recorded one of the lowest metering rates at 31.43 per cent in December, though this marked an improvement from 29.79 per cent in November. Yola DisCo also remained among the weakest performers, with a metering rate of 30.80 per cent, up slightly from 29.91 per cent in the previous month.
Kaduna and Kano DisCos posted similarly low figures, with Kaduna improving from 33.95 per cent in November to 34.42 per cent in December, while Kano rose marginally from 35.02 per cent to 35.35 per cent within the same period.
Among other DisCos, Benin improved its metering rate from 51.97 per cent to 53.45 per cent, while Enugu recorded a marginal increase from 51.51 per cent to 51.60 per cent. Ibadan DisCo, which has the largest customer base, posted a slight rise from 51.65 per cent to 51.85 per cent.
Port Harcourt DisCo also showed notable progress, with its metering rate increasing from 62.63 per cent in November to 64.13 per cent in December.
The report further highlighted variations in the number of newly metered customers across DisCos. Abuja led with 19,953 new meters in December, followed by Benin with 17,928 and Port Harcourt with 17,471. However, Enugu recorded a sharp drop in new installations, with only 1,538 customers metered in December compared to 6,988 in November.
Overall, while the addition of over 100,000 meters within one month reflects ongoing efforts to close the metering gap, the data indicates that progress remains slow and uneven across the country.
The Commission’s figures suggest that with over 5.1 million customers still unmetered as of December 2025, estimated billing continues to dominate large segments of the Nigerian electricity market, raising concerns about transparency, revenue assurance, and consumer protection.