No fewer than 187,765 electricity customers were newly metered across Nigeria between September and October 2025, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed.

This is contained in NERC’s latest Electricity Metering Factsheet, which showed an improvement in the country’s metering performance within the two-month period.

According to the report, 80,943 customers were metered in September, while 106,822 customers received meters in October, indicating an acceleration in meter deployment nationwide.

The commission said the sustained rollout increased the national metering rate from 55.37 per cent in September to 56.07 per cent in October.

During the same period, NERC noted that Nigeria’s active electricity customer base grew from 12,030,315 to 12,071,018, representing an increase of 40,703 customers.

The number of metered customers rose from 6,661,564 at the end of September to 6,768,386 by October, leaving 5,302,632 customers still on estimated billing.

NERC attributed the gradual improvement partly to ongoing interventions, including the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) and other metering initiatives, which began to record visible gains in the last quarter of the year.

A breakdown of performance by distribution companies (DisCos) showed that Ikeja Electric recorded the highest metering rate nationwide at 85.59 per cent, with 1,113,421 of its 1,300,940 active customers metered.

Eko Electricity Distribution Company followed closely with 84.75 per cent, while Abuja Electricity Distribution Company recorded 75.82 per cent.

However, the report revealed that four DisCos — Yola, Jos, Kaduna and Kano — remained below the 35 per cent metering threshold.

Yola Disco ranked lowest with 28.92 per cent, followed by Jos Disco at 29.74 per cent, Kaduna Disco at 33.72 per cent, and Kano Disco at 34.50 per cent.

NERC further noted that Aba Power recorded the most significant improvement during the period under review, installing 18,906 meters and increasing its metering rate from 69.49 per cent in September to 78.20 per cent in October, representing a 3.3 percentage-point rise.

In terms of monthly installations for October, Abuja Disco added 19,118 meters, Ikeja Electric installed 17,046, while Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company followed with 15,739 meters. Other DisCos, including Benin, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Eko, accounted for the remaining installations.

Despite the gains, the commission said over 5.3 million electricity customers across the country were still without meters.

NERC observed that with metering levels now surpassing 56 per cent after years of stagnation between 50 and 55 per cent, sustained efforts through the end of 2025 could move Nigeria closer to the long-standing goal of universal electricity metering.

The commission recently criticised electricity distribution companies for what it described as insufficient commitment to metering customers.

Speaking at the 4th Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Stakeholders’ Meeting in Abuja, NERC Vice Chairman, Dr Musiliu Oseni, said there were currently between 600,000 and 700,000 meters available in the country.

Oseni challenged DisCos to improve public awareness and accelerate meter deployment, noting that government investment had already been made to support the process.

Similarly, NERC Commissioner for Corporate Services, Mr Nathan Shatti, urged DisCos to stop acting as if metering customers was a favour.

While reviewing data on Meter Asset Provider (MAP) refunds and installations, Shatti described the performance of some utilities as poor, noting that Abuja and Kano DisCos had achieved only two per cent compliance on customer refunds.

He also rejected technical excuses for delays in installing paid-for meters, insisting that DisCos should not collect customers’ money if their networks were not ready for metering.

Shatti added that failure to install meters and transformers resulted in financial losses for DisCos, stressing that it was in their interest to address metering and infrastructure challenges promptly.

He further disclosed that over 350,000 meters were yet to be migrated to the new Standard Transfer Specification (STS), calling for immediate clean-up of obsolete metering data.