Electricity: Nigeria’s metered customers rise 17.7% to 4.7m in 9 months
The number of metered customers has increased by 17.7 percent to 4,772,906 in September 2021, from 4,053,403, recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
This according Q1 to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC.
In its Key Operational & Financial Data of Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, released yesterday, NERC disclosed that the number of registered customers also increased by 19 percent to 12,784,685, from 10,733,509, recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
But there were indications that more Nigerians still leave without prepaid meters as the nation’s metering gap rose by 20 per cent to 8,011,779 in September 2021, from 6,680,106 in the corresponding period of 2020, probably due to the registration of new customers.
However, it was gathered the number of metered customers would be higher when the October –December, 2021 data are released in the coming months.
In its recent quarterly reports obtained by Vanguard, NERC had disclosed that Nigeria’s consumers complaints to 11 Electricity Distribution Companies, DisCo, have increased by 10 per cent to 965,468 in 2020, from 631,572 in 2019, according to the Nigerian Electricity regulatory Commission, NERC.
It had also disclosed that the highest complaints of 241,476 were recorded in the second quarter of 2020, while the least of 204,506 were recorded in the first quarter of 2020, against the highest and the least of 172,833 and 145,959, recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.
The complaints, according to the Commission were mainly about issues and challenges in the sector, including lack of power supply and meters.
Furthermore, in its 2021 first and second quarter reports, NERC, had stated that 478,415 complaints were made, indicating a drop of 7.2 per cent against 445,982 complaints recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
The report stated: “During the second quarter of 2021, the eleven (11) DisCos received 241,476 complaints from consumers, indicating 1.91% more complaints than those received in the first quarter of 2021.
“This amounts to an average of 2,653 complaints per day. In total, the DisCos attended to 230,169 complaints representing an increase of 1.91 percentage point over the preceding quarter. Metering, billing, and service interruption are the prevalent sources of customer complaints, accounting for 58.07% of the total complaints in the second quarter of 2021.”
