Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Nigeria’s Distribution Companies, DisCos, collected N553.63 billion in Q1 2025, yet fell short of key billing and collection targets, worsening their commercial performance.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, billing efficiency dropped by 2.48 percentage points, while collection efficiency declined by over 3 points quarter-on-quarter.
The report reveals that DisCos billed N744.27 billion worth of electricity during the quarter but only managed to collect 74.39% of the billed amount. This is down from a 77.44% collection rate recorded in Q4 2024. The decline in performance raises alarm over liquidity in the Nigerian power market.
In terms of billing, DisCos received a total of 8,169GWh in electricity but billed only 6,631.92GWh to end-users. This resulted in an overall billing efficiency of 81.18%, a significant drop from the 83.66% reported in the preceding quarter.
The cascading effect of this underperformance is evident in the Aggregate Technical, Commercial, and Collection, ATC&C, losses, which rose sharply to 39.61%. This figure is 19.07 percentage points above the 2025 MYTO target of 20.54%, signifying a troubling setback.
These losses, made up of 18.82% technical and commercial losses and 25.61% collection losses, translated into a staggering N200.5 billion in revenue leakage across all DisCos within the quarter alone.
Kaduna DisCo emerged as the worst performer, recording a shocking 68.57% ATC&C loss against a target of 21.32%.
The failure of all DisCos to meet their ATC&C targets signals deep-rooted inefficiencies, ranging from poor metering and weak collections to infrastructure deficits and energy theft. These systemic issues continue to strain the power market’s sustainability.
Market operators and regulatory agencies have repeatedly urged DisCos to invest in metering infrastructure. However, the persistence of performance shortfalls casts doubt on their financial discipline and management practices.
While remittance to upstream players like NBET and MO improved to 95.86%, the inability to retain adequate revenue internally undermines the DisCos’ operational capability and service delivery obligations.
