Discos Collected Total of N203.61 Billion from Customers in April

• Collection efficiency improves to 80.66% 

• Eko exceeds 100% revenue recovery rate

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Nigeria’s electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) collected a total of N203.61 billion from customers in April 2026, representing a 3.81 per cent increase over the preceding month, even as overall billing efficiency weakened marginally despite higher energy received and billed during the period.

The latest Commercial Performance Factsheet released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) yesterday showed that the 11 Discos received electricity worth N302.96 billion in April, up 3.13 per cent from March. Of this amount, they billed customers N252.43 billion, an increase of 2.43 per cent.

However, billing efficiency, which measures the proportion of energy received that was successfully billed, declined by 0.57 percentage points to 83.32 per cent, indicating that nearly 17 per cent of energy supplied was not billed, the NERC data indicated.

The report showed that while the value of billings rose to N252.43 billion, the amount collected from customers increased even faster to N203.61 billion, resulting in a collection efficiency of 80.66 per cent, an improvement of 1.07 percentage points over March.

NERC also reported an improvement in the sector’s revenue recovery performance, with the average allowed tariff standing at N124.39/kWh, while the actual average collection was N102.13/kWh, representing a revenue recovery efficiency of 82.11 per cent, up 1.06 percentage points from the previous month.

A breakdown of the Discos’ billing performance showed that Enugu Electricity Distribution Company recorded the highest billing efficiency at 92.77 per cent, followed by Eko with 91.56 per cent, Ibadan at 88.55 per cent, Abuja at 86.77 per cent, and Kano at 84.56 per cent.

Ikeja posted a billing efficiency of 84.16 per cent, slightly above the industry average, while Benin recorded 73.98 per cent, Jos 69.50 per cent, Yola 66.35 per cent, and Kaduna had the weakest performance at 62.81 per cent.

In terms of energy volumes, Abuja Disco received the largest allocation valued at N51.13 billion, followed closely by Ikeja with N49.31 billion and Eko with N42.72 billion. Abuja also recorded the highest total billings at N44.36 billion, ahead of Ikeja’s N41.50 billion and Eko’s N39.12 billion.

On revenue collection, Abuja retained the top position with N37.55 billion, narrowly ahead of Ikeja at N37.34 billion and Eko at N36.87 billion.

The commission’s data showed that Benin Disco achieved the highest collection efficiency among all operators at 95.52 per cent, followed by Eko with 94.26 per cent, Port Harcourt at 91.41 per cent, Ikeja at 89.97 per cent, and Abuja at 84.63 per cent.

At the lower end of the ranking, Kano recorded a collection efficiency of 49.89 per cent, Kaduna posted 55.38 per cent, Jos 58.93 per cent, Yola 68.61 per cent, Enugu 70.66 per cent, and Ibadan 71.63 per cent.

The report also highlighted significant differences in revenue recovery performance across the distribution companies.

Eko Disco emerged as the only operator to recover more than its approved average tariff, recording a revenue recovery efficiency of 102.09 per cent, with an average collection of N128.43/kWh against an allowed tariff of N125.80/kWh.

Other strong performers included Port Harcourt with a recovery efficiency of 90.39 per cent, Abuja at 89.77 per cent, Ikeja at 88.89 per cent, and Benin at 86.65 per cent.

Enugu posted a recovery efficiency of 81.22 per cent, marginally above the regulatory benchmark of 80 per cent.

The remaining five Discos fell below the benchmark as Ibadan recorded 78.04 per cent, Yola 65.07 per cent, Jos 52.48 per cent, Kano 51.87 per cent, while Kaduna recorded the weakest revenue recovery performance at 43.15 per cent.

In all, the April figures pointed to stronger cash collections and improved revenue recovery across the electricity distribution segment despite a slight deterioration in billing efficiency. This suggested that while Discos became more effective at collecting revenue from billed customers, challenges in fully capturing and billing all energy supplied persisted.