More than five million electricity consumers in Nigeria remain without meters, leaving them vulnerable to arbitrary estimated billing by distribution companies, according to data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
NERC disclosed that 5.3 million electricity customers, representing 44% of the total 12.07 million registered consumers, had no meters, this despite the N700 billion provided by the federal government in 2025 under the Presidential Metering Initiative to procure and distribute free meters.
The commission’s Q3 2025 industry report offers a sharper breakdown. As of September 30, 2025, only 6.662 million of the 12.030 million active registered electricity customers across the 12 DisCos were metered, representing 55.37% coverage, leaving 5.36 million customers without meters.
The situation was even worse a year earlier. As of September 30, 2024, 7,182,909 customers 53.85% of the total had no meters across the twelve distribution companies.
Metering activity has picked up in pockets of the country but remains deeply uneven. During Q3 2025, a total of 228,614 end-user customers were metered across all DisCos, with Ibadan, Aba, and Abuja DisCos recording the highest installations, accounting for 23.38%, 20.81%, and 19.06% of the total, respectively. Yet the gains are fragile.
Nine DisCos recorded declines in meter installation over the same period, with Port Harcourt and Jos DisCos posting the steepest drops of 62.35% and 61.68% respectively, while Aba, Abuja, and Ibadan DisCos recorded notable increases.
According to all Africa, Of the meters installed during the quarter, 176,302 representing 77.12% were deployed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework, 44,104 under the Vendor-Financed framework, and 7,902 under the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme. The MAP framework has remained the dominant vehicle for meter rollout, even as other channels lag far behind targets.
Punch further reports that the consequences of this failure fall squarely on consumers. Metering complaints accounted for 47.69% of consumer grievances, overtaking billing disputes as the single biggest source of anger, and together with service interruptions, these three issues made up as much as 75.57% of all complaints in some quarters.
Critics argue this is no accident. Rather than aggressively investing in infrastructure upgrades and smart meters, many DisCos have largely relied on estimated billing to survive, effectively turning inefficiency into a business model.
NERC’s Order on the Operationalisation of Tranche B of the Meter Acquisition Fund approved N28 billion for DisCos to procure and install meters at no cost to consumers, with clear timelines and penalties for default. Yet months after the order took effect on October 6, 2025, many DisCos continued to stall installations despite the availability of funding.
The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has insisted that over 2.5 million meters under the Presidential Metering Initiative must be installed free of charge.
Nigeria’s metering gap has narrowed but only modestly. From a deficit touching 54% in late 2024 down to 44% by end of 2025, millions of consumers remain locked in a billing system that rewards opacity over accountability, with regulators still struggling to compel the very companies they oversee to act.
