Ibadan and Enugu DisCos together accounted for nearly two million unmetered customers

  • Nigeria still had about 5.25 million unmetered electricity customers across DisCos.
  • The 11 DisCos reported in Q4 2025 had 5.20 million unmetered customers.
  • Nigeria’s reported metering rate stood at 57.3% as of Q4 2025.
  • Ibadan and Enugu had the largest gaps, with nearly two million unmetered customers combined.
  • Ibadan alone had 1.18 million unmetered customers, the highest of any DisCo.
  • Ikeja and Eko had the strongest metering performance, both at about 86%.
  • At the 2025 pace of meter additions, closing the current gap could take close to seven years.

“By all means necessary, you must have electricity, and you will not pay for estimated bill anymore.”

That was President Bola Tinubu’s campaign promise.

By Q4 2025, however, Nigeria’s 11 reported DisCos still had 5.20 million customers without meters, while 57.3% of customers were metered. Including Aba Power’s latest available Q3 figure brings the estimated number of unmetered customers across all DisCos to about 5.25 million.

The gap is unevenly distributed. Ibadan DisCo alone had 1.18 million unmetered customers, followed by Enugu with 794,500, together accounting for nearly two million unmetered customers. Ikeja and Eko had the highest metering rates at about 86%, while Yola, Jos, Kaduna and Kano remained below 36%.

Nigeria added about 756,000 reported metered customers in 2025, an average of roughly 63,000 monthly. At that pace, closing the current gap would take nearly seven years, around 2033, assuming the customer base and rate of progress remain unchanged.

However, recent movements should not be interpreted entirely as new meter installations. Reported customer records were revised during the year, Kano was missing from the Q3 dataset, and Aba Power was excluded from the NBS Q4 report. The 57.3% metering rate therefore reflects both metering progress and changes in the reported customer base.

Source:

NBS; NERC

Period:

Q4 2025
HTML code to embed chart
Want a bespoke report?
Reach out
Click to copy HTML embed code
Tags
Related Insights
East African countries accounted for seven of the continent's 15 biggest electricity access gains in 23 years
  • Eswatini recorded Africa’s largest electricity access gain, rising by 66 percentage points from 2000 to 2023.
  • Kenya and Rwanda followed with gains of 61 pp and 58 pp, respectively.
  • East African countries accounted for 7 of Africa’s top 15 electricity access improvements.
  • Comoros, Ghana and Cape Verde reached very high access levels by 2023, at 90%, 90% and 99% respectively.
  • Nigeria’s electricity access improved by 18 percentage points, from 43% in 2000 to 61% in 2023.
  • Despite that improvement, Nigeria remained outside Africa’s top 15 gainers over the period.
  • Some countries were absent from the ranking because they had already reached high access levels by 2000.
The national grid collapses an average of 7 times annually under Tinubu, down from 13 times under Buhari
  • The highest number of grid collapses in the past 16 years occurred in 2010, with 42 incidents recorded.
  • During Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria’s grid collapsed an average of 24.4 times a year, the highest among the three administrations.
  • Under Muhammadu Buhari, the annual average dropped to 12.8 collapses per year, indicating improved grid stability compared to earlier years.
  • Under Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the average has fallen further to about 6.7 collapses annually.
  • 2016 recorded the highest number of collapses during the Buhari administration, with 28 incidents.
  • The most stable years in the dataset were 2020 and 2021, with only four collapses each.
Nigeria’s power grid is 69.9% powered by thermal plants
  • Thermal energy dominates Nigeria’s grid, supplying 69.9% of total power.
  • Hydro plants contribute 30.1%, making them the country’s second major source.
  • The heavy reliance on thermal generation shows Nigeria’s grid is still largely fossil-fuel driven.
  • Hydro remains a crucial but secondary source, supporting overall supply stability.
Nigeria's DisCos recorded ₦360bn revenue gap after collecting ₦1.12tn from ₦1.49tn billed in H1 2025
  • DisCos billed approximately ₦1.49 trillion but collected only ₦1.12 trillion in H1 2025.
  • Ikeja and Eko DisCos generated the highest revenues, collecting ₦206.22 billion and ₦210.59 billion, respectively.
  • Revenue collection gaps remain significant, with Jos, Kaduna, and Yola posting the weakest collection performances.
  • The wide gap between billings and actual collections suggests persistent challenges in customer payment compliance, metering, and distribution efficiency.
Nigeria has installed 3.65 million electricity metres since 2019; Ikeja DisCo leads with 823,000, and Aba Power at the bottom with 56,000
  • Approximately 3.65 million metres have been installed nationwide across all frameworks since 2019.
  • Ikeja DisCo leads by a wide margin with 823,000 installations, over twice the volume of most other DisCos.
  • Kaduna, Yola, and Aba Power recorded the lowest metre installations, each below 100,000.
  • The disparities in installation totals reveal uneven progress in achieving nationwide metering coverage.
More than 8 in 10 electricity customers of Ikeja and Eko DisCos are now metered
  • Ikeja (84.6%) and Eko (83.3%) lead Nigeria’s metering performance, keeping unmetered customers below 17%.
  • Eight out of the twelve DisCos have metering rates below 60%, showing a wide sector imbalance.
  • The worst-performing DisCos — Yola, Jos, Kaduna, and Kano — have over 65% unmetered customers.
  • Regional disparities are sharp: Lagos and Abuja outperform northern and south-eastern DisCos by large margins.
POPULAR TOPICS
SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER
Get periodic updates about the African startup space, access to our reports, among others.
Subscribe Here
Subscription Form
A product of Techpoint Africa. All rights reserved