While Kano soared with 331% growth in Q1 2025, Ibadan's deployments hit 42,685, marking a superior numerical increase of 5,596

  • Kano DisCo recorded the highest increase in metered customers with a 330.75% rise in just one quarter.
  • Aba DisCo more than doubled its metered customers, increasing by 116.87%.
  • Ikeja DisCo, despite being a top performer overall, saw a 23.62% drop in meter installations.
  • Enugu and Eko also recorded declines in quarterly deployments by 12.31% and 4.02% respectively.
  • Ibadan DisCo deployed the highest number of meters in Q1 2025 but grew at a moderate rate of 15.09%.
  • Yola DisCo experienced the steepest decline in the country, dropping by 56.70% in metered customers.

Between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, the number of metered electricity customers in Nigeria changed in unexpected ways across different regions. Kano DisCo recorded the most dramatic surge in meter deployment, with a 330.75% increase, growing from just 1,226 (in Q4 2024) to 5,281 customers (in Q1 2025). This improvement reflects an urgent acceleration in coverage, especially in states where previous metering rates were alarmingly low. Other DisCos like Jos and Aba also showed solid improvements, more than doubling their numbers in one quarter. On the flip side, some of the top-performing DisCos like Ikeja and Enugu recorded sharp declines in meter deployment for the quarter.

Millions of Nigerians are still dealing with "crazy bills" every month—estimated charges that don’t match actual usage. Seeing areas like Kano, Jos, and Aba make aggressive improvements in meter installations offers hope. It shows that progress is possible and that DisCos can respond when there's pressure, funding, or a regulatory push.

Interestingly, even though Ibadan leads in total numbers with over 42,000 meters deployed in Q1 2025, its growth was only 15.09%, showing steady but not extraordinary progress.

Source:

NERC

Period:

Q4 2024/Q1 2025
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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.

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.

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.

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