From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed that 187,194 electricity meters were installed across the country in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025.
The figure marks a marginal increase of 0.41 per cent compared to the 186,431 meters installed in Q4 of 2024.
According to NERC’s Q1 2025 report, the new installations have nudged Nigeria’s net end-user metering rate upward to 46.98 per cent, from the 46.57 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.
Breaking down the figures, the commission stated that 148,713 meters—representing 79.44 per cent of total installations—were deployed under the Meter Asset Programme (MAP), while 36,787 meters came through the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF). Additionally, 1,074 meters were installed under the DisCo Financed framework, and 620 under the Vendor Financed scheme. To protect unmetered customers from unfair billing practices, the commission said it continues to set monthly energy caps for all feeders under each electricity distribution company (DisCo).
“This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month based on gross energy received by the DisCo and consumption by metered customers on their respective feeders,” the report explained.
On customer service delivery, the commission disclosed that DisCos resolved only 1,554 out of the 4,169 complaints escalated to NERC during the quarter—translating to a resolution rate of 37.27 per cent.
Overall, DisCos received 254,404 complaints in Q1 2025, which represents a 7.72 per cent drop from the 275,681 complaints filed in Q4 2024.
“As in previous quarters, metering, billing, and service interruption were the prevalent issues of customer complaints during the quarter,” the report noted.