…Consumers Owe ₦385bn Debt
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said Nigeria’s electricity market experienced a total deficit of ₦151.30 billion in 2023.
This follows the issuance of a ₦858.03 billion invoice to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) for energy received from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) and for service charges from the market operator (MO).
According to the NERC’s “2023 Annual Report & Accounts,” which THE WHISTLER obtained on Monday, DisCos managed to settle ₦706.73 billion of the total invoice, resulting in an overall remittance performance of 82.37%.
The report also highlighted that the total billing to electricity consumers by DisCos reached ₦1,463.24 billion, with only ₦1,077.51 billion collected, leaving an outstanding debt of ₦385.73 billion and a collection efficiency of 73.64%.
“In 2023, a total invoice of ₦858.033 billion was issued to all the DisCos for energy received from NBET and for service charges by the MO, out of which a sum of ₦706.73 billion was settled by DisCos, leaving a total deficit of ₦151.30 billion in the market. This payment translates to an overall remittance performance of 82.37%.
“The total billings to electricity consumers by the DisCos was ₦1,463.24 billion of which only ₦1,077.51 billion was collected, leaving a total outstanding of ₦385.73 billion and corresponding to a collection efficiency of 73.64%. Market’’, the report stated.
NERC disclosed that Eko and Yola DisCos reported high remittance performances to NBET of 105.76% and 105.14%, respectively. Conversely, Kaduna DisCo posted the lowest remittance performance at just 17.59%.
It added that in terms of remittances to the MO, Yola, Eko, and Ikeja excelled with rates of 90.91%, 90.85%, and 90.38%, respectively, while Kaduna again lagged with a dismal 10.75%.
“Eko and Yola DisCos had high remittance performances of 105.76%4 and 105.14% respectively to NBET in 2023 while Kaduna achieved the lowest remittance performance to NBET (17.59%).
“The highest remittance performances to the MO were recorded by Yola, Eko and Ikeja at 90.91%, 90.85% and 90.38% respectively while Kaduna recorded the lowest MO remittance performance of 10.75% in 2023’’, NERC said.
The NERC also emphasized ongoing customer complaints about service, with metering, billing, and service interruptions making up 82.82% of the 7,207 complaints received through its Customer Complaints Unit.
The commission reported a resolution rate of 70.31%, with 5,067 complaints resolved.
“Electricity consumers lodged complaints against their service providers. The complaints reporting channels include the NERC Customer Complaints Unit (NERC-CCU), DisCo Customer Complaint Unit (DisCo-CCU) and the NERC Forum Office.
“The Commission also launched the Power Outage Reporting System (PORS) during the year for customers to report outages in real-time. In 2023, the NERC-CCU received 7,207 complaints and 5,067 were resolved corresponding to a 70.31% resolution rate.
“A review of the customer complaints data presented in Figure A indicates that metering, billing, and service interruption issues were the most common customer complaints, accounting for 82.82% (5,969) of the total complaints at the NERC-CCU in 2023’’, the report stated further.
On the metering, the report disclosed that as of December 31, 2023, only 44.39% of the registered 13.16 million customers in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) were metered.
It added that in 2023, DisCos installed 672,539 new meters, including those under the National Mass Metering Program and the Meter Asset Provider framework.
“As of 31st December 2023, only 5,842,726 (44.39%) of the registered 13,162,572 customers in the NESI were metered. DisCos installed 672,539 end-use customer meters in 2023.
“25,847 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) framework while 585,265 meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework.
“Furthermore, 6,912 meters were installed through the Vendor Finance Metering framework while 53 end-use customer meters were installed through the DisCo Financed framework’’, the report stated further.