Recovery Efficiency Slumps as Discos Collect N208bn from N253bn Billing

Nigeria's electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) collected N208.15 billion from customer billings totaling N252.87 billion in May 2026, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). This represents a collection efficiency of 82.32 percent. However, the overall revenue recovery efficiency for the Discos weakened, falling to 77.31 percent from the previous month, indicating a decline in their ability to recover the full value of electricity supplied.

The NERC report revealed that the Discos received electricity valued at N328.95 billion during May, an increase of 8.58 percent over April. Despite this, only N252.87 billion, or 76.87 percent of the energy received, was billed to customers. This suggests that nearly a quarter of the supplied electricity was not converted into customer bills, and the billing efficiency of 76.87 percent marked a decline of 6.45 percentage points compared to April.

From the total billings of N252.87 billion, approximately N44.72 billion remained uncollected. Nevertheless, the collection efficiency saw an improvement of 1.66 percentage points, reaching 82.32 percent, indicating the utilities were more successful in recovering payments from those who were billed. The average tariff approved by the regulator was N124.39 per kilowatt-hour, but the actual average collected was only N96.16 per kilowatt-hour, contributing to the overall revenue recovery efficiency drop.

Among the distribution companies, Ikeja Electricity demonstrated the strongest commercial performance, achieving a collection efficiency of 97.28 percent and the highest revenue recovery efficiency of 94.63 percent. Eko Electricity Distribution Company also maintained strong performance, posting the highest billing efficiency of 90.66 percent among all Discos and a revenue recovery efficiency of 91.54 percent.