The Federal Government spent about N1.93 trillion on electricity subsidy in 2025, even as Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies lost N1.36 trillion to poor billing and unpaid bills in the year in view.
The subsidy obligation represented 57.44% of NBET’s total invoice for the year, a data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, on Monday revealed.
The huge government intervention came as authorities kept customer tariffs below cost-reflective levels.
NERC also said the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the Market Operator issued gross invoices of about ₦1.72 trillion to the DisCos for energy and market services in 2025. The DisCos remitted approximately ₦1.63 trillion, leaving a shortfall of ₦89.58 billion.
The report said the national grid experienced a full system collapse on September 10, 2025, while a partial system collapse occurred on December 29, following a fault on the Benin-Onitsha 330kV transmission line.
Besides, Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies lost ₦1.36 trillion in potential revenue in 2025.
According to the report, the DisCos supplied electricity worth ₦3.68 trillion last year, but only ₦2.99 trillion was billed to customers.
The development means ₦694.8 billion worth of electricity was supplied but never billed.
The report said, from the ₦2.99 trillion billed, the DisCos collected ₦2.32 trillion. It said another ₦669.49 billion remained unpaid.
The report said the DisCos recorded a billing efficiency of 81.14% and a collection efficiency of 77.60%, adding that for every ₦100 of electricity billed, only ₦77.60 was recovered.
The Commission also reported that the sector’s average ATC&C losses stood at 37.03%. That is well above the 20.54% target set in the 2025 Multi-Year Tariff Order.
According to the report, as of December 2025, Nigeria had 12.16 million active registered electricity customers, but only 6.97 million, or 57.27 per cent, were metered. This left approximately 5.20 million customers, representing 42.73 per cent, without meters.
The power distributing companies installed 972,040 meters during the year, with Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company recording the highest deployment at 180,256 meters, while Yola DisCo recorded the lowest at 14,231.
Customer dissatisfaction also remained pronounced. DisCo customer complaint units received 708,699 complaints during the year, with metering, billing and service interruptions accounting for the majority of the complaints.
At NERC’s own Customer Complaints Unit, 8,305 complaints were recorded.
NERC issued 194 licences, permits and certifications across the electricity market in 2025, up from 168 in 2024.
The approvals included 64 mini-grid permits, 43 Meter Service Provider approvals, 30 Meter Asset Provider permits and 31 captive power licences, alongside approvals covering distribution networks, off-grid and embedded generation and electricity trading.
This suggests increasing regulatory attention to mini-grids, captive generation and metering as Nigeria seeks alternatives to the limitations of the conventional grid.
But the scale of the revenue gap underlines the central challenge facing the industry: increasing electricity supply alone will not resolve the sector’s financial problems unless the power delivered to consumers can be accurately metered, billed and paid for.