The Nigerian Electrical energy Regulatory Fee (NERC) says a complete of 228,614 electrical energy meters had been put in throughout Nigeria within the third quarter of 2025, indicating modest however regular progress within the nation’s metering drive.
That is in line with info contained in NERC’s Third Quarter 2025 report revealed on the fee’s web site.
The report exhibits that whereas meter deployment continues to rise progressively, Nigeria nonetheless faces a big metering hole, with practically half of electrical energy clients remaining unmetered.
NERC disclosed that the 228,614 meters put in in Q3 2025 represented a 0.73% enhance in comparison with the 226,959 meters deployed within the second quarter of the yr.
The Meter Asset Supplier (MAP) framework remained the dominant channel for meter deployment, accounting for 176,302 installations, or 77.12% of the overall meters put in nationwide through the quarter.
This was adopted by the Vendor Financed framework, which delivered 44,104 meters, representing 25.01% of whole installations.
Different metering initiatives recorded considerably smaller contributions. The Distribution Sector Restoration Programme (DISREP) accounted for 7,902 meters, representing 3.46% of installations.
The Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) framework delivered 175 meters (0.08%), whereas the DisCo-financed framework recorded simply 131 meters, or 0.06% of whole installations.
As of the tip of September 2025, NERC reported that 6,661,564 clients out of a complete 12,030,315 energetic registered clients within the Nigerian Electrical energy Provide Trade (NESI) had been metered. This interprets to a nationwide metering price of 55.37%, which means that practically one in each two electrical energy clients in Nigeria stays and not using a pay as you go meter.
The regulator acknowledged that the persistence of a giant unmetered buyer base continues to show shoppers to the dangers of estimated billing and potential exploitation.
To mitigate this problem, NERC stated it has sustained the issuance of month-to-month vitality caps for all feeders operated by electrical energy distribution corporations (DisCos).
In keeping with the fee, the vitality caps set the most quantity of electrical energy that may be billed to unmetered clients every month.
“This units the utmost quantity of vitality that could be billed to an unmetered buyer for the respective month, primarily based on gross vitality acquired by the DisCo and consumption by metered clients on their respective feeders,” the fee said.
Whereas the incremental rise in meter deployment suggests gradual progress, trade analysts argue that the tempo stays far beneath what’s required to shut Nigeria’s metering hole inside an inexpensive timeframe.
With greater than 5.3 million registered clients nonetheless with out meters, estimated billing continues to undermine client confidence within the energy sector.
The sluggish tempo of metering additionally limits income transparency for DisCos and complicates efforts to enhance effectivity and repair supply throughout the electrical energy worth chain.
Nigeria’s nationwide electrical energy metering price has risen to 56.07% as of October 2025, in line with NERC.
The September–October 2025 information offers an up to date snapshot of buyer metering efficiency throughout the 11 electrical energy distribution corporations (DisCos), revealing each encouraging progress and ongoing challenges.
