Nigeria’s electricity metering rate improved steadily in the first four months of 2026, rising from 57.93 per cent in January to 59.69 per cent in April.
This followed the installation of more prepaid meters by electricity distribution companies (DisCos) as part of ongoing efforts to reduce reliance on estimated billing.
Data released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that the number of metered customers increased from 7.09 million in January to 7.44 million in April.
This represents an addition of more than 349,357 customers within the four-month period.
The improvement reflects efforts by the Federal Government and electricity distribution companies to close Nigeria’s metering gap.
Despite the progress, more than five million active electricity customers were still without prepaid meters as of April 2026.
According to NERC, DisCos added more than 227,000 customers to the metering network in March and April alone, pushing the national metering rate closer to 60 per cent.
The Commission’s March and April 2026 Metering Status of Distribution Companies Factsheet showed that the national metering rate increased from 59.13 per cent in March to 59.69 per cent in April.
The report, published on NERC’s official X handle, showed that the number of metered customers rose from 7,324,079 in March to 7,435,733 in April.
This represents an increase of 111,654 customers in one month.
The improvement followed the installation of 115,905 meters in March, bringing the total number of newly metered customers added across March and April to 227,559.
NERC’s data also showed that Nigeria’s metering rate rose consistently throughout the first four months of the year.
The rate increased from 57.93 per cent in January to 58.57 per cent in February, 59.13 per cent in March and 59.69 per cent in April.
The total number of active electricity customers also increased from 12,386,848 in March to 12,457,068 in April, reflecting continued growth in electricity connections across the country.
The report showed that metering performance varied across the 11 electricity distribution companies.
Eko Electricity Distribution Company remained the best-performing DisCo with a metering rate of 88.78 per cent.
The company had 599,213 metered customers out of 674,929 active customers after adding 9,198 new meters in April.
Ikeja Electric ranked second with a metering rate of 87.93 per cent.
The company metered 1,182,200 customers out of 1,344,517 active customers after installing 5,657 new meters during the month.
Abuja Electricity Distribution Company also maintained strong performance with a metering rate of 80.08 per cent.
The utility had 1,107,850 metered customers out of 1,383,420 active customers after adding 13,506 new meters.
Among other distribution companies, Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company recorded a metering rate of 67.73 per cent, while Benin DisCo achieved 59.14 per cent.
Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company recorded a metering rate of 53.75 per cent after installing 31,951 meters, the highest monthly deployment among all DisCos in April.
Enugu Electricity Distribution Company posted a metering rate of 51.38 per cent.
However, several northern distribution companies continued to record the lowest metering coverage.
Yola Electricity Distribution Company recorded the lowest metering rate at 34.45 per cent, followed by Jos DisCo at 34.67 per cent and Kano DisCo at 35.40 per cent.
Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company recorded a metering rate of 37.51 per cent.
Although these companies made some progress in April, their performance remained below the national average.
Yola DisCo added 7,187 newly metered customers, Kaduna DisCo added 6,522, Jos DisCo added 1,523, while Kano DisCo installed just 172 new meters during the month.
Metering remains one of the biggest challenges in Nigeria’s electricity sector, with millions of consumers still relying on estimated billing because of the shortage of prepaid meters.
To address the challenge, the Federal Government and industry regulators have introduced initiatives such as the National Mass Metering Programme to accelerate meter deployment and improve billing transparency.
The drive for wider metering coverage is also expected to reduce disputes between consumers and distribution companies, improve revenue collection and strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s electricity sector reforms.
However, stakeholders say funding constraints, foreign exchange challenges, supply chain disruptions and regulatory uncertainties continue to slow the pace of meter deployment.
The latest NERC data indicates that although Nigeria’s metering gap is gradually narrowing, substantial investment and faster deployment will still be required to achieve universal customer metering.
