Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies lost about N310bn in the first quarter of 2026 due to unbilled energy and poor revenue collection, according to an analysis of commercial performance factsheets released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The reports showed that despite receiving electricity worth over N907bn during the three-month period, the 11 electricity distribution companies failed to bill a significant portion of the energy supplied to them and were unable to collect all revenues from customers who were billed.
The data indicated that cumulative losses from unbilled energy and uncollected bills reached N309.73bn in the first quarter, comprising N150.36bn in unbilled energy and N159.37bn in uncollected revenue.
In January, the DisCos received energy valued at N336.43bn. Of this amount, they billed customers N268.20bn, leaving N68.23bn worth of electricity unbilled. However, the firms collected only N204.74bn from the N268.20bn billed, resulting in N63.46bn in uncollected revenue.
The month recorded a billing efficiency of 79.72 per cent and a collection efficiency of 76.34 per cent, translating to a revenue recovery efficiency of 69.16 per cent.
