By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja
Electricity consumers across Nigeria paid about N1.2 trillion for power consumed in the first six months of 2026, according to data released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The figure represents revenues collected by the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), based on NERC’s monthly commercial performance reports between January and June 2026.
The reports showed that the DisCos collected N204.75 billion in January, N196.68 billion in February, N196.13 billion in March, N203.61 billion in April, N208.15 billion in May and N191.68 billion in June.
May recorded the highest monthly collection at N208.15 billion, while June posted the lowest at N191.68 billion.
The June figure represented a 7.9 per cent decline from the N208.15 billion collected in May, translating to a reduction of about N16.47 billion.
According to NERC’s June 2026 factsheet, the DisCos received 315.73 billion kWh of electricity during the month, of which 240.71 billion kWh was billed, representing a billing efficiency of 76.24 per cent.
The commission said billing efficiency declined by 0.63 percentage points compared with May.
Total electricity billings stood at N240.71 billion in June, while actual revenue collection was N191.86 billion, resulting in a collection efficiency of 79.71 per cent.
Collection efficiency declined by 2.61 percentage points from the previous month.
The June performance also showed a gap of N48.85 billion between the amount billed and the revenue collected by the DisCos during the month.
On revenue recovery, NERC reported an allowed average tariff of N130.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), compared with an actual average collection of N96.63/kWh.
This resulted in a recovery efficiency of 74.24 per cent, representing a decline of 3.07 percentage points from May.
There were, however, significant variations in performance among the DisCos.
Eko Disco recorded the highest revenue recovery efficiency at 87.04 per cent, followed by Port Harcourt at 86.33 per cent, Benin at 82.23 per cent and Ikeja at 80.08 per cent.
At the lower end, Kaduna Disco recorded the weakest recovery efficiency at 37.03 per cent, followed by Kano at 44.04 per cent and Jos at 51.33 per cent.
In terms of collection efficiency, Benin Disco led with 94 per cent, followed by Ikeja at 89 per cent and Eko at 88.64 per cent.
Kano and Kaduna recorded the lowest collection efficiencies at 42.16 per cent and 46.13 per cent respectively.
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