NERC receives 1,220,245 complaints in 2023 – Report

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said it received 1,220,245 complaints through its customers’ complaints units in 2023,

The commission said that metering and overbilling of consumers accounted for the highest complaints.

This is contained in the commission’s 2023 Annual Report on its website viewed on Tuesday.

The report said that the complaints bordered on metering, overbilling, disconnection, service interruption, delay in reconnection, load shedding, and voltage interruptions, among others.

“The most common issues among the complaints received by DisCos during the year were metering -53.09 per cent, billing – 16.30 per cent and service interruption – 8.16 per cent.

“These three complaints categories cumulatively accounted for 77.55 per cent of the total complaints in the year,” it said.

According to the report, Ibadan and Port Harcourt DisCos received the highest complaints.

It said Ibadan DisCo received 207,216 representing 16.98 per cent while Port-Harcourt DisCo received 205,054 representing 16.80 per cent of the total complaints, respectively.

“ In comparison, Aba and Yola DisCos had the lowest complaints. Aba had 4,029 complaints representing 0.33 per cent and  Yola had 11,930 representing 0.98 per cent of the total complaints

“ Cumulatively, 1,156,553 complaints were resolved yielding a resolution rate of 94.78 per cent, ‘’it said.

The report also said that the NERC Forum Offices had 10,144 appeals in 2023.

It said that the Forum offices received 6,387 new appeals while 3,757 appeals were pending from 2022.

The report further said that the forum office serving the Ikeja DisCo had 2,689 appeal, Ibadan had 2,562, making the two Discos to recording the highest number of appeals.

This, it said, corresponded to 26.51 per cent and 25.26 per cent of total appeals respectively.

The report said that Abuja DisCo had 243 appeals representing 2.40 per cent while Yola DisCo received 248 representing 2.44 per cent of the total appeals.

It said this made Abuja and Yola  DisCos to receive the fewest appeals.

“ The Forum Offices had 359 sittings in 2023 and resolved 6,181 appeals representing 60.93 per cent of the total active appeals.

“. Billing was the most prevalent complaint within the year, accounting for 61.41 per cent of the total appeal

“ Complaints about metering and disconnection represented 23.90 per cent and 5.28 per cent of the appeals respectively, ‘’ it said.