By Akinyemi Precious
Statistics by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the proportion of metered to total revealed that over 5.96 million customers are being inaccurately charged by electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the country.
According to the report almost 53 per cent of Nigeria’s 11.27 million electricity customers receive inaccurate billing.
According to the NERC’s (Methodology for Estimated Billing) Regulations 2012 (Estimated Billing Methodology Regulation) which was introduced in 2012 to deter Distribution Companies (DisCos) from issuing to electricity customers arbitrary electricity bills which did not reflect their actual power consumption, all customers have a right to transparent electricity billing.
All un-metered customers according to the law should be issued with electricity bills strictly based on NERC’s estimated billing methodology and all customers have a right to refund when over billed.
The NBS report shows that Ikeja Electric leads with 76 per cent of its customers having prepaid meters, followed by Port Harcourt with 63 per cent, and Eko Electricity Distribution Company with 61 per cent. Abuja had 59 per cent, Benin had 51 per cent, Enugu had 44 per cent, Ibadan had 42 per cent, Jos had 32 per cent, Kano had 30 per cent, Kaduna had 24 per cent, and Yola was the least performing with only 21 per cent of metered customers in the period under review.
It was, however, gathered that the number of metered customers in Nigeria in Q1 2023 which is 5.31 million, increased on a year-on-year basis, thereby growing by 5.71 per cent from the figure reported in Q1 2022 at 4.79 million
The report also said that estimated customers stood at 5.96 million in Q1 2023, on a year-on-year basis, increased by 1.99 per cent, from 5.84 million recorded in Q1 2022 and the total customer numbers in Q1 2023 stood at 11.27 million from 11.06 million in Q4 2022, showing an increase.
Furthermore, the DisCos generated a total of N247.33 billion in the first three months of 2023, which is the highest in 15 months.