HomeFeatured PostMetering Gap Remains Despite 187,000 New Installations

Metering Gap Remains Despite 187,000 New Installations

Metering Gap Remains Despite 187,000 New Installations

Despite the various initiatives aimed at tackling estimated billing and enhancing customer satisfaction, over half of Nigeria’s electricity consumers remain unmetered.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said in its latest report on the sector that a total of 187,194 meters were installed in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting a marginal increase of 0.41 per cent compared to the 186,431 meters installed in the last quarter of 2024.

This brought the end-user metering rate in the country to 46.98 per cent as of March 31, 2025, up slightly from 46.57 per cent at the end of 2024. The data, which was contained in NERC’s First Quarter 2025 Report, indicated that the bulk of the new meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider framework.

Specifically, 148,713 meters, representing 79.44 per cent of the total installations, were deployed under the MAP scheme. Another 36,787 meters were installed under the Meter Acquisition Fund, while 1,074 meters came through the Distribution Companies Financed model and 620 meters through the Vendor Financed scheme.

According to the report, performance varied widely among the 12 distribution companies. Ikeja Electric led the pack with the highest metering rate of 78 per cent, followed by Abuja Electricity Distribution Company with 72 per cent, and Eko DisCo with 64 per cent.

In contrast, Yola DisCo had the lowest metering coverage, with just 14 per cent of its customers metered. Other metering rates included Benin DisCo (50 per cent), Enugu (49 per cent), Ibadan (44 per cent), Jos (27 per cent), Kaduna (25 per cent), Kano (25 per cent), and Port Harcourt (46 per cent).

Ibadan DisCo led all others with 42,685 meters installed in the quarter, accounting for 22.8 per cent of the national total. Ikeja followed closely with 40,810 installations, while Abuja deployed 25,400 meters.

Other significant figures included Benin with 23,591 meters, Enugu with 14,459, Eko with 14,097, Kano with 5,281, and Jos with 5,140 units.

According to the report, installations under the MAP framework were again led by Ibadan, which deployed 38,616 meters. Ikeja and Abuja installed 30,844 and 23,078 meters respectively under the same scheme, while Benin and Enugu followed with 22,172 and 7,716 meter installations respectively.

For the MAF framework, it was said that Ikeja Electric topped the chart with 9,966 installations. Enugu followed with 6,743 meters, while Ibadan and Kano each installed over 4,000 meters. Other contributors included Eko, Jos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin, Yola, and Kaduna.

Since the MAP scheme began in 2019, Ikeja has installed a cumulative total of 652,998 meters, followed by Abuja with 444,330 and Ibadan with 438,594. To boost the metering plan, NERC said it certified 13 new Meter Service Providers during the quarter — six as installers, five as manufacturers, and two as importers.

The commission disclosed that it also issued eight permits to new Meter Asset Providers, including BTS Eve Power Limited, Ukpaka Nigeria Limited, Technovati Limited, Tripleseventh Nigeria Limited, Denotata Engineering Services Limited, Venco Platforms Limited, Fulenell Nigeria Limited, and San Verad Nigeria Limited.

In response to the widespread use of estimated billing, often criticised by consumers as arbitrary, the commission maintained its policy of setting monthly energy caps for all feeders.

These caps specify the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer based on the feeder’s total energy consumption and the usage profile of metered customers.

However, there were reports that many of the DisCos overbilled their customers, attracting sanctions from the regulator. During the quarter, metering remained one of the dominant causes of customer dissatisfaction, along with billing issues and service interruptions.

While the slight uptick in metering is a step forward, experts said the pace remained slow compared to the scale of the challenge. With more than half of Nigeria’s electricity consumers still unmetered, bridging the metering gap has remained a major hurdle in reforming the power sector and improving service delivery.

SOURCE: The PUNCH

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