Ikeja Electric offers customers up to N20,000 electricity on credit

Customers of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) can now access up to N20,000 worth of electricity units on credit and pay later under a new service introduced by the electricity distribution company.

The service, known as Energy Advance, allows eligible customers to obtain electricity units when their prepaid balance runs out, with the company currently promoting the facility through its customer payment platform.

Ikeja Electric said the initiative is designed to prevent customers from losing power when they run out of units and are unable to immediately purchase a new token.

However, the facility is not available to every customer. Ikeja Electric said access is subject to eligibility, with customers required to check their status through its payment platform.

While the company has put the maximum advance at N20,000, it has not publicly disclosed key details such as the repayment period, whether customers will pay any additional charge, the consequences of default or the precise criteria used to determine eligibility.

The Energy Advance service is also not entirely new to Ikeja Electric’s customer communication. The company had promoted access to an energy advance of up to N20,000 in August, before the service received wider media attention in September.

A new dimension to electricity payments

The move introduces a “use electricity now, pay later” model into Nigeria’s prepaid electricity market, shifting part of the payment process from buying power before consumption to accessing power before payment.

This comes at a time when revenue collection remains one of the major commercial challenges confronting Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies.

The latest NERC commercial performance data showed that the 11 DisCos billed customers N240.71 billion in June 2026 but collected N191.86 billion, leaving a N48.85 billion gap between electricity billed and revenue recovered.

Industry-wide collection efficiency fell to 79.71 per cent in June, down 2.61 percentage points from May, while revenue recovery efficiency declined to 74.24 per cent.

Ikeja Electric, however, remained among the better-performing DisCos, recording a collection efficiency of about 89 per cent in June, according to the NERC data.

The contrast raises an important question about the direction of electricity retailing in Nigeria: as DisCos seek to improve revenue collection, could short-term electricity credit become another tool for keeping customers connected while ensuring eventual payment?

For consumers, the immediate attraction is convenience. A household or small business that runs out of units at an inconvenient time can potentially remain connected without first finding cash to recharge.

However, the commercial value of the scheme will depend heavily on its repayment structure and uptake. If thousands of customers use the facility, the size of the advances extended, repayment rate and default levels could provide an indication of whether electricity credit can become a viable new payment model for Nigeria’s distribution companies.

For now, Ikeja Electric has not disclosed how many customers have accessed Energy Advance, the total value of electricity advanced or the repayment performance of users.

Those figures will be critical in determining whether the initiative is simply a customer-convenience product or the beginning of a broader shift towards credit-based electricity consumption.