Metering rate rises to 59.69% as unmetered customers fall by 41,434
5.02 million active customers still without metering devices
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The number of metered electricity customers in Nigeria increased by 111,654 in April 2026, rising from 7,324,079 in March to 7,435,733, as the country continued to make gradual progress in closing its metering deficit.
Data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) showed that the increase in metered customers pushed the national metering rate from 59.13 per cent in March to 59.69 per cent in April, representing a 0.56 percentage point improvement.
However, the increase in the number of metered customers did not translate into an equivalent reduction in the overall metering gap because the number of active electricity customers also increased during the month.
According to the NERC data, active customers rose from 12,386,848 in March to 12,457,068 in April, representing an increase of 70,220 customers or 0.57 per cent.
Consequently, the number of active customers without meters fell from 5,062,769 in March to 5,021,335 in April, representing a reduction of 41,434 customers or 0.82 per cent.
The figures therefore showed that although 111,654 customers were added to the metered customer base in April, 70,220 additional customers entered the active customer base during the same period, leaving a net reduction of 41,434 in the number of unmetered customers.
The development underscores the challenge confronting the Distribution Companies (Discos) as they seek to improve metering across the country. Sustained progress in closing the gap will depend on the pace of meter deployment consistently exceeding the growth in the number of electricity customers.
According to the NERC data, performance of the 11 distribution companies also remained uneven, with only three recording metering rates above 70 per cent in April.
Eko Disco retained the highest metering rate at 88.78 per cent, followed by Ikeja at 87.93 per cent and Abuja at 80.08 per cent.
At the other end of the scale, Yola had the lowest metering rate at 34.45 per cent, followed by Jos at 34.67 per cent and Kano at 35.40 per cent. Kaduna recorded a metering rate of 37.51 per cent, the data showed.
Ibadan Disco recorded the largest number of newly metered customers during the month, adding 31,951 customers to its metered base, as Benin followed with 22,270 newly metered customers, while Port Harcourt added 13,668 and Abuja 13,506.
Eko added 9,198 customers, Yola 7,187, Kaduna 6,522, Ikeja 5,657 and Jos 1,523, while Kano added 172 customers. Enugu recorded no increase in its metered customer base during the month.
Ibadan’s performance was particularly significant given the size of its customer base. The Disco had 2,508,179 active customers in April, the highest among the 11 DisCos, followed by Enugu with 1,660,690, Abuja with 1,383,420 and Ikeja with 1,344,517.
Ibadan also recorded the largest reduction in its metering gap, cutting the number of unmetered customers by 25,581 during the month.
Port Harcourt recorded the second largest reduction, with its gap falling by 7,146 customers, while Yola reduced its gap by 5,493, Benin by 5,428 and Kaduna by 4,900. Abuja reduced its metering gap by 1,604 customers, while Eko recorded a reduction of 948. Kano recorded only a marginal reduction of 15 customers.
However, the metering gap widened in three Discos during the month. Enugu recorded the largest increase, with its unmetered customer population rising by 7,882. Ikeja’s gap increased by 1,239, while Jos recorded an increase of 560.
The differences in performance were also reflected in the monthly changes in metering rates.
Yola recorded the largest improvement, with its metering rate rising from 33.16 per cent in March to 34.45 per cent in April, representing an increase of 1.29 percentage points.
Ibadan followed with an increase of 1.14 percentage points, from 52.61 per cent to 53.75 per cent, while Benin’s rate increased by 1.12 percentage points to 59.14 per cent.
Kaduna’s metering rate rose by 1.08 percentage points to 37.51 per cent, while Port Harcourt improved by 0.86 percentage points to 67.73 per cent. Abuja moved above the 80 per cent mark, increasing from 79.79 per cent to 80.08 per cent, while Eko improved from 88.50 per cent to 88.78 per cent.
Despite adding 5,657 metered customers, Ikeja’s metering rate declined marginally from 87.96 per cent to 87.93 per cent because its active customer base grew faster than its metered customer base.
Enugu’s metering rate also fell from 51.62 per cent to 51.38 per cent during the period.
The data further showed that the number of customers metered during April was lower than in March. The monthly figure fell from 115,905 in March to 111,654 in April, representing a decline of 4,251 customers or 3.67 per cent.
Despite the slower monthly pace, the cumulative metered customer population rose to 7.44 million in April, leaving 5.02 million active customers without meters.