Power sector loses N1.36tn to revenue leakages, NERC reports

Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies left about N1.36tn unaccounted for in 2025, with losses arising both before and after customers received their bills.

The 11 DisCos supplied electricity valued at N3.68tn but billed consumers for only N2.99tn, leaving N694.8bn worth of supplied power unbilled. Of the amount billed, they collected N2.32tn, leaving another N669.49bn outstanding. NERC put overall billing efficiency at 81.14% and collection efficiency at 77.60%.

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The total billing to electricity consumers by the DisCos was N2.99tn, but only N2.32tn was collected, translating to a collection efficiency of 77.60 per cent.

The commission’s annual report also measured the gap in energy terms. DisCos received 31,251.77 gigawatt-hours at their trading points but billed customers for only 25,867.86GWh, producing energy accounting efficiency of 82.77%. Ibadan DisCo recorded the highest efficiency, at 88.84%, while Enugu recorded the lowest, at 72.18%.

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The 2013 privatisation was not a reform. It was a transfer of custody.

The figures have renewed criticism of Nigeria’s electricity privatization. Former senator and businessman Ben Murray-Bruce said the 2013 exercise failed to provide the investment and reliability promised to consumers. “The 2013 privatisation was not a reform. It was a transfer of custody,” he wrote in an open letter to President Bola Tinubu.

Murray-Bruce argued that the buyers had enough money to acquire the assets but not enough to operate and expand them. “Owning a power station and capitalising a power station are two different economic acts, and we confused them,” he said. NERC reported aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses of 37.03%, 16.49 percentage points above the 20.54% target under the 2025 tariff order.

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Owning a power station and capitalising a power station are two different economic acts, and we confused them.