Why Electricity Consumers Are Reluctant In Payment Of Bills- NERC

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has attributed electricity customers’ apathy towards payment for electricity bills to poor access to prepaid Meters.

NERC, in its Second Quarter 2020 Report stated that the huge metering gap for end-user customers remain a key challenge in the industry.

The report revealed that of the 10,516,090 registered electricity customers as of 30 June 2020, only 4,234,759 (40.27 per cent) has been metered.

It stated, “59.73 percent of the registered electricity customers are still on estimated billing which has contributed to customer apathy towards payment for electricity bills.

“In comparison with the first quarter of 2020, the numbers of registered and metered customers increased slightly by 0.36 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.”

The Commission explained that the increase in registered customers was, in addition to the new connection, due largely to the on-going customer enumeration exercise by DisCos through which unregistered consumers of electricity were brought into the DisCos’ billing platform.

Similarly, the increase in metered customers was attributed to the roll-out of meters under the MAP scheme.

It stated that the Abuja, Benin, and Eko DisCos had metered more than 50 per cent of their registered electricity customers as of 30 June 2020.

To ensure speedy metering of electricity customers in order to meet the target of closing the metering gap in NESI by 31 December 2021, the Commission, in addition to securing waiver of the levy previously imposed on imported meters, has continued its monitoring of DisCos’ implementation of and compliance with the provisions of the MAP Regulations to fast-track meter roll-out.

It stated, “The estimated billing, metering and service interruption remain the most significant areas of concerns for customers, accounting for 64.88 per cent (131,789) of the total complaints in the second quarter of 2020.