The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has reported that the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the country generated N247.09 billion as revenue in the first quarter of this year, representing 68.75 per cent out of the N359.38 billion billed the customers.
The NERC, in its just released ‘Q1 2023 Electricity Report’, also disclosed that the DisCos installed a total of 171,107 meters across their franchise areas in the first quarter of this year.
The distributed meters in Q1 2023 represented an increase of 6,495 installations (+3.95%) compared to the 164,612 meters installed in Q4 2022 and 1.06 per cent increase in net end-user metering rate in the NESI between Q4 2022 which stood at 42.25 per cent and 43.31 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
According to the NERC’s just released ‘Q1 2023 Electricity Report’, 158,634 meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) intervention while 9,931 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
The report also indicated that the DisCos cumulative collection efficiency reduced by 4.58 percentage points from 73.33 per cent in Q4 2022 to 68.75 per cent in the first quarter of this year due to slowdown in metering electricity consumers.
Although the report stated that DisCos would continue to implement various collection campaigns to improve remittance for post-paid customers, the commission noted that the low collection efficiency remained a major threat to the NESI’s financial sustainability.
The report also showed that in the quarter under review, the average remittance performance to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc dropped to 67.62 per cent from the 77.31 per cent in Q4 2022.
The NERC further disclosed that the 32.37 per cent that was not remitted to NBET posed a challenge to the sector as the shortfall led to underpayment of the electricity generation companies’ (GenCos) which could affect their ability to finance critical maintenance operations needed to boost power generation.
Based on its concern about the revenue situation of the industry, the Commission hinted of its plans to scale up its monitoring of the NMMP and MAP metering programmes being implemented by the DisCos.
