Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that almost 60 percent of electricity users in the country are still on estimated billing.
The commission made this known in the third quarter of 2019 report released recently where it was stated that 5.8 million Nigerians, which represented 59.7 percent of registered consumers, were still getting billed by estimates.
The report further disclosed that only Abuja and Benin distribution companies had metered more than 50 percent of their registered electricity customers as at the end of September 2019.
“The metering gap for end-use customers is still a key challenge in the industry. The records of the commission indicate that, of the 9,674,729 registered electricity customers, only 3,895,497 (40.26 percent) have been metered as at the end of the third quarter of 2019.
“Thus, 59.74 percent of the registered electricity customers are still on estimated billing which has contributed to customer apathy towards payment for electricity.
“In comparison to the second quarter of 2019, the numbers of registered and metered customers increased by 8.93 percent and 1.65 percent respectively.
“The increase in registered customer population is due to the on-going customer enumeration exercise by DisCos through which illegal consumers of electricity were brought unto the DisCos’ billing platform,” the commission said.
Praising the Meter Assets Provider (MAP) scheme, the NERC said it had been essential in rolling out meters to all its unmetered customers.
The commission said in February, it issued an order to a cap estimated billing by electricity distribution companies to unmetered customers.
The order, it said, would protect customers from unrealistic billing until a prepaid meter is installed by the DisCos.
The commission said it was working with the Ministry of Power to set a target for closing the metering gap by December 2021.
