NERC urges DisCos to prioritize electricity meter deployment across the nation

By Clement Ezeolisah 

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced that over 600,000 electricity meters were currently available for installation across the country.

NERC Vice Chairman, Dr. Musiliu Oseni, made the abive disclosure at the 4th NESI Stakeholders’ Meeting in Abuja. He called on distribution companies (DisCos) to speed up their meter rollout and improve public communication, noting that the government has already made the necessary investments to make the meters available.

He also called on the DisCos to take responsibility for ensuring that the meters reach customers without delay.

He said, “There are currently 600,000 to 700,000 meters available in the country. Utilities must improve publicity. The government has made the investment, so the DisCos need to step up.”

Oseni also spoke about the ongoing transition to State Electricity Regulatory Commissions, calling on DisCos to fully cooperate with the new sub national regulators, saying no operator is above regulatory oversight.

The rollout of prepaid meters aims to address the  issue of estimated billing affecting many Nigerian households. The deployment of meters is expected to reduce the metering rate, which stood at 55.01% as of August 2025, with 6.58 million metered customers out of 11.96 million active electricity customers.

Reacting to a report that some DisCos have only achieved 2% performance on MAP meter refunds to customers, NERC Vice Chairman Dr. Musiliu Oseni issued a stern warning regarding financial penalties: “This would be met with necessary sanctions.”

Dr. Oseni proposed a direct enforcement mechanism utilising the wholesale market structure: "You still have your Operational Expenditure (OPEX) at the national wholesale market level. If you refuse to refund customers, that money can be withheld from your OPEX until you have done so." He insisted that strict timelines be issued immediately to ensure compliance.

Earlier, NERC Commissioner for Corporate Services, Nathan Shatti, in reviewing the data on Meter Asset Provider (MAP) refunds and installations, highlighted the poor performance, noting that Abuja and Kano DisCos have achieved only 2% compliance on refunds.

On the backlog of paid-for but uninstalled meters, he rejected technical excuses: "If your network is not ready for metering, do not collect people's money." He further observed that for every transformer or meter not installed, DisCos incur losses, hence it is in their interest to meter customers and fix transformer-related issues.

He also revealed that over 350,000 meters were yet to be migrated to the new STS standard, demanding immediate cleanup of obsolete data.

Dafe Akpeneye, Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, advised DisCos to “Issue a public notice that you cannot identify these meters. Block them from vending and take them off your system until the people concerned come forward."