In the second quarter of 2025, Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCos) achieved a notable milestone by installing 225,631 meters, reflecting a 20.55% increase over the 187,161 meters installed in Q1. This uptick is documented in the recently released Q2 2025 report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (“NERC”).
Of the total installations, a majority—147,823 meters (65.52%)—were delivered via the Meter Asset Provider (“MAP”) framework. Under this model, private meter owners deploy units and recover costs through billing. Meanwhile, 65,315 meters came through the Meter Acquisition Fund (“MAF”) scheme, 12,259 meters were deployed under Vendor‑Financed mechanisms, and only 234 meters were installed via the DisCo‑Financed route.
Despite the surge in installations, the report reveals a lingering gap in national metering. By June 2025, only 6,422,933 out of 11,821,194 active registered customers across the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (“NESI”) were metered—equating to a 54.33% metering rate. In other words, nearly half of all electricity consumers remain unmetered, relying on estimated billing.
To cushion impacts on unmetered users, NERC has continued to enforce its monthly energy cap policy, which limits how much energy can be billed to unmetered customers based on feeder-level consumption and gross energy delivered.
The report also sheds light on consumer dissatisfaction trends. During Q2, DisCos’ Customer Complaints Units logged 227,267 complaints, marking a 10.67% decline from Q1’s 254,404. However, in NERC’s Central Complaint Unit (CCU), only 1,129 out of 2,474 complaints were resolved, a resolution rate of 45.63%, which the regulator regards as unsatisfactory.
Further, two regional forum offices were shuttered in the quarter, reducing the count from 26 to 24. Meanwhile, forum panels sat 41 times, tackling 1,418 appeals (1,040 new, 378 pending), and resolved 958 appeals, yielding a 67.56% resolution rate—down from 74.10% in Q1.
In April, NERC penalized eight DisCos—namely AEDC, IKEDC, EKEDC, EEDC, JEDC, Kaduna Electric, KEDCO, and YEDC—for breaching the estimated billing cap. The fines totaled over N628 million, and each company was ordered to issue credit adjustments to affected customers, which is a move that sparked mixed reactions from consumers and industry experts.
