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By Uche Usim
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed that customer complaints about metering, billing and service interruptions accounted for 70.28% of the total complaints received across all power distribution companies (DisCos) in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024.
According to NERC’s latest quarterly report, 328,696 complaints were registered by customers in Q3 2024, reflecting a remarkable 14.35% increase from the 287,441 complaints in the previous quarter.
The report highlighted that metering issues dominated the complaints, representing 41.95%, followed by billing concerns at 21.28%, and service interruptions at 7.05%.
“The most common issues among the 328,696 complaints received by DisCos in 2024/Q3 were metering (41.95%), billing (21.28%), and service interruption (7.05%). These three (3) complaints categories cumulatively accounted for 70.28% of the total complaints in the quarter,” the report stated.
Eko DisCo emerged as the highest receiver of complaints, accounting for 19.77% of the total, with 64,987 complaints. On the other hand, Yola DisCo had the least number of complaints at just 2,583, representing only 0.79% of the total.
DisCos that saw the most significant rise in customer complaints compared to the previous quarter included Benin (+96.16%), Kano (+52.22%), Yola (+26.74%), Eko (+21.75%), and Abuja (+21.30%). Conversely, Enugu DisCo recorded a decrease of -5.68%.
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In the report, NERC acknowledged the suboptimal customer complaint resolution rate of 31.15%, marking an improvement from the 22.38% rate recorded in Q2 2024. A total of 5,287 complaints were handled by NERC’s Customer Complaint Units (CCUs), out of which 1,647 were resolved.
“Customers of Ikeja and Eko Discos lodged 2,401 and 1,073 complaints, accounting for 45.41% and 20.30% respectively of the total complaints lodged at NERC CCU,” the report stated. “Conversely, Aba Power had the lowest number of complaints with 10 (0.19%) of the total number received.”
Despite this improvement, NERC recognized the need for further action to address the growing backlog of unresolved issues. To this end, they are implementing measures to improve complaint resolution across DisCos.
Additionally, customers across the country received N207.4 million as credit adjustments for complaints related to over-billing. Billing complaints alone made up 34.37% of the total, with the top four complaints—billing, metering, tariff band issues, and service interruptions—comprising 90.18% of all complaints.
Disconnections represented 6% of all complaints, with other issues such as voltage interruptions, load shedding, and non-compliance accounting for the rest.
NERC also reported a total of 3,202 active appeals across its 33 forum offices for the quarter, including 1,035 unresolved appeals from Q2 2024 and 2,167 new appeals. As part of ongoing efforts to enhance customer satisfaction, the commission is focusing on improving the effectiveness of customer complaint resolution at the DisCo-CCU level to reduce the number of appeals escalating to forum offices.
The report, stakeholders note, highlights the critical areas of concern in Nigeria’s power sector and highlights the need for further reforms to ensure better service delivery to consumers.
