- Five DisCos (Benin, Kaduna, Ibadan, Yola, and Port Harcourt) disproportionately supplied electricity to low-paying or poorly accounted feeders in Q3 2025.
- NERC warned that energy misallocation and weak accounting practices are worsening liquidity pressures in the power sector.
Five electricity distribution companies (DisCos) supplied more power to less profitable and poorly monitored feeders in the third quarter of 2025. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) reported this in its latest industry performance document.
The affected companies are Benin, Kaduna, Ibadan, Yola and Port Harcourt DisCos. These companies recorded significant negative gaps between their Billing Efficiency and Energy Accounting Efficiency. This metric shows how DisCos allocate power across tariff bands under the MYTO framework.
As a result of this imbalance, DisCos lost an estimated ₦147.92 billion in billing inefficiencies during the quarter. NERC explained that the MYTO system requires DisCos to share power fairly across Bands A to E and maintain consistent accounting.
Meanwhile, NERC stated that the difference between billing and accounting should stay within a limit of ±2 percentage points. Billing efficiency measures the percentage of electricity value a DisCo successfully converts into bills. Losses stem from technical issues along the network and commercial problems, such as meter bypass, theft, and inaccurate metering.
A positive variance above +2pp means the DisCo supplied more power to profitable feeders. A negative variance below -2pp indicates that the DisCo supplied more power to feeders that performed poorly.
In addition, only Jos DisCo stayed within the benchmark, with a margin of +1.71 percentage points. Ikeja (+7.52pp), Abuja (+7.39pp), Eko (+10.13pp), Enugu (+9.35pp) and Kano (+12.69pp) DisCos sent more power to high-paying customers. Port Harcourt (-3.60pp), Yola (-11.66pp), Ibadan (-16.88pp), Kaduna (-18.28pp) and Benin (-26.18pp) DisCos sent more power to low-paying or poorly monitored areas.
Furthermore, Benin DisCo performed worst with a -26.18pp variance. It also recorded the lowest billing efficiency at 60.68%. Eko DisCo recorded the highest billing efficiency at 99.18%.
Sector billing efficiency also improved slightly from 81.61 per cent in Q2 2025 to 82.69 per cent in Q3 2025. In Q3, DisCos received electricity worth ₦854.53 billion but billed customers only ₦706.61 billion. This resulted in a shortfall of ₦147.92 billion.
NERC warned that poor energy allocation and weak accounting continue to damage liquidity in the power sector. The regulator stated that DisCos must improve metering, protect revenue, and adhere to the MYTO rules to strengthen market sustainability.