DisCos Lose N46bn To Billing, Collection Gaps

… Blame Uncollected Debt On Weak Enforcement

The 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) collectively billed N238.67bn worth of energy in August 2025, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed.

This represents an 83.85 per cent billing efficiency, even as the total energy received from the national grid stood at N284.64bn.

According to the fact sheet released by NERC, the figures point to a billing shortfall of about N46bn within the month.

Despite a modest 2.81 per cent rise in billing efficiency from July, the report shows a continuing gap between energy received and energy billed, reflecting persistent challenges in metering, technical losses, and commercial inefficiencies.

The collection side also tells a worrying story: of the N238.67bn billed, only N191.11bn was actually collected, leaving a collection efficiency of 80.07 per cent.

Among the 12 DisCos, Ikeja and Eko continued to lead performance metrics, recording 98.65 per cent and 101.36 per cent billing efficiencies respectively.

Ikeja DisCo also achieved a remarkable 104.32 per cent collection efficiency, while Eko maintained strong recovery figures at 85.64 per cent.

Aba Power and Ibadan DisCo followed closely, each improving on both billing and recovery indices.

On the lower end, Kaduna and Jos DisCos posted the weakest performance, with Kaduna trailing at just 59.74 per cent billing efficiency and a collection rate of 46.63 per cent.

NERC attributed these discrepancies partly to poor infrastructure, weak enforcement, and legacy debts.

However, the overall sector’s recovery efficiency stood at 79.78 per cent, meaning only about eight out of every ten naira of allowed tariff value was effectively collected.

The average allowed tariff was N116.25 per kilowatt-hour, while actual collections averaged N92.75/kWh.

THE WHISTLER had previously reported that Discos recorded a N57bn revenue shortfall in July 2025, despite improved performances by Ikeja and Eko DisCos in billing and revenue collection.

According to the fact sheet released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), DisCos received electricity worth N300.04bn during the period.

However, only N243.14bn was billed to customers, which reflects a billing efficiency of 81.04 per cent.

This left a shortfall of about N56.9bn in unbilled energy.

Despite the industry-wide gap, Ikeja and Eko DisCos stood out as the best performers.