Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) left ₦669.49 billion in unpaid electricity bills in 2025, despite billing customers a total of ₦2.99 trillion during the year.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) 2025 Annual Report, DisCos collected ₦2.32 trillion of the ₦2.99 trillion billed, representing a 77.60% collection efficiency.
This means that for every ₦100 worth of electricity billed to customers, DisCos recovered about ₦77.60, leaving ₦22.40 uncollected.
NERC said the under-recovery was driven by several factors, including customers’ unwillingness to pay bills when due, dissatisfaction with electricity services and inadequate customer metering.
Eko and Ikeja lead revenue collection
Eko DisCo recorded the highest collection efficiency among the distribution companies at 87.90%, closely followed by Ikeja DisCo at 87.89%.
Abuja DisCo recorded an 80.41% collection efficiency, while Benin and Enugu recorded 84.17% and 78.42%, respectively.
At the bottom of the table, Kaduna DisCo recorded the lowest collection efficiency at 45.68%, while Jos DisCo recorded 46.11%.
Ibadan DisCo recorded a 77.57% collection efficiency, collecting ₦250.45 billion from ₦322.89 billion billed during the year.
The revenue collection problem comes as electricity consumers continue to raise concerns over metering, billing and electricity supply.
NERC said DisCo customer complaint units received 708,699 complaints in 2025, with metering, billing and service interruptions accounting for 69.76% of the complaints.
At NERC’s own Customer Complaints Unit, the three categories accounted for 78.80% of the 8,305 complaints received during the year.
Ibadan DisCo recorded 126,082 customer complaints, while Port Harcourt and Kano recorded 140,320 and 100,586 complaints respectively.
The unpaid bills form part of a broader financial challenge facing Nigeria’s electricity distribution sector.
NERC reported that the weighted average Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) loss across the DisCos stood at 37.03% in 2025, significantly above the 20.54% target set under the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO).
Collection losses alone accounted for 22.40 percentage points of the total loss.
The regulator said the weak collection and billing performance continues to affect the financial liquidity of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), limiting its ability to grow and attract new investment.
Despite the collection gap, DisCos remitted ₦1.63 trillion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) and Market Operator against gross invoices of ₦1.72 trillion in 2025.
