More than half of Nigeria’s 12.1 million electricity customers now have meters

Nigeria has crossed a major milestone in electricity distribution, with more than half of all customers now having prepaid meters installed.

The national metering rate reached 57.27% by the end of December 2025, up from 56.54% in November, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) latest factsheet.

Out of 12,163,412 active electricity customers across the country, 6,966,584 now have meters.

Distribution companies installed 109,556 new meters in December alone, a significant jump from the 88,592 meters installed in November. The increase signals accelerating progress in closing the metering gap that has plagued Nigeria’s power sector for years.

The distribution companies leading and lagging

As of December, three distribution companies had metering rates above 76%. Ikeja DisCo is the leading company at 86.40%, followed by Eko DisCo at 85.87%, and Abuja DisCo at 77.81%. These three companies consistently have the highest rates of providing meters to their customers.

In contrast, Kaduna DisCo had the lowest metering rate, with only 34.42% of its customers having meters. This means that roughly one of three customers in Kaduna DisCo’s service area has a meter. Kano DisCo had the next lowest rate at 35.35%, followed by Benin DisCo at 55.45%.

Ibadan DisCo covers the most customers nationally with 2,444,715 active accounts, but has metered only 1,267,503 of them, a 51.85% rate that falls below the national average.

Similar read: NERC approves N28 billion to DisCos for free meter roll out

Abuja DisCo, despite having fewer total customers at 1,441,807, has achieved a much higher metering rate by installing meters for 1,044,014 customers.

Yola DisCo has the smallest customer base at 611,098, but maintains a respectable 50.80% metering rate with 152,468 installations.

What improved prepaid meter distribution means for electricity access

With a national rate of 57.27%, over 5.1 million customers (almost 43% of all customers) still lack meters. These customers receive estimated bills, frequently causing disagreements between utility companies and customers about billing accuracy.

Customers without meters usually pay higher bills than necessary due to inflated estimates. Additionally, they can notmonitor or regulate their electricity usage, which makes it hard to control expenses.

NERC has been encouraging distribution companies to close the metering gap through various initiatives, including the National Mass Metering Programme and the Meter Asset Provider scheme. The December installation numbers suggest the pressure is working, with DisCos installing meters faster than in previous months.

This week, the regulator released a factsheet showing the metering status breakdown for November and December 2025. The factsheet indicates continued progress in installing meters for all electricity customers across Nigeria’s distribution network.

Achieving 50% is a major accomplishment. However, resolving billing issues for over five million customers remaining will show if Nigeria can create a reliable electricity billing system.

The post More than half of Nigeria’s 12.1 million electricity customers now have meters first appeared on Technext.