Estimated bill consumers rise to 5.85 million

Nigeria saw an increase in the number of electricity consumers on anticipated billing, from 5.84 million in the first quarter of this year to 5.85 million in the second quarter of 2022.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported on Nigerian electricity data on Tuesday and found a 0.01m (10,000) rise throughout that time.

Estimated billing has become a problem, even though it’s not as bad as it was before the power industry was privatised. Recently, electricity consumers have been more apathetic toward paying their bills.Information Guide Nigeria

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As a result, the demand for metres has increased among power distribution firms as a means of addressing the problem of anticipated billing.

According to a recent report by The PUNCH, of the 10.5 million registered consumers, only 4.8 million had been metered as of December 2021, putting the total registered customers who had yet to be metered by the Discos at over five million.

As of the review year (2021), Abuja Disco had 1,124,559 registered consumers overall.

Abuja was able to measure a total of 701,781 of the total clients registered under each Disco, followed by Benin with 622,429, Eko with 348,016 customers, Enugu with 562,500, and Ibadan with 782,105.

Ikeja had 719,140 metres installed as of the review period, followed by Jos, 210,833, Kaduna, 166,045, Kano, 190,83, Port Harcourt, and 65,098 metres installed by Yola Disco, bringing the total number of metres installed to roughly 4.5 million.

This suggests that out of the more than 200 million individuals in Nigeria, the exercise of customer registration by energy distribution firms has remained static at around 10 million.

“At the end of 2021, over 10 million customers are registered, with approximately 47 per cent metered,” the association said in its Commercial KPIs for ANED’s Members Q4/2021 report.

42% of customers were metered as of 2018, according to an analysis of the metering trend on the ANED report.

2019 saw a 40% decrease in the proportion of customers that were metered. Metered customers increased to 47% by the end of 2021 from their 2020 level of 40%.

Metering expert and chartered accountant, Olusesan Okunade, said consumers complaining of high estimated billing were those whose neighbours engaged in energy theft.

“I think between 2019 and now, there have been several people captured into the Discos network because they’ve gone out on a serious drive for people to report energy theft.”

“So whenever you complain that you were given a high bill, you would either know it’s as a result of your consumption, or that there are people who are not captured under the Discos network using electricity for free.”

Okunade said, “The slow metering issue has to do with so many factors such as foreign exchange. Most Discos have not been able to bring in metres because of the cost as we speak. But the good thing is that the NMMP has assisted them.JAMB Result

“So if the government can deploy more into bringing in some metres, even if the consumers are going to spread the cost or factor it into their bills, it will be an advantage.

“Government needs to get involved and monitor the DisCos while they are at it. The purchasing power of the consumers is very low as we speak. So, the government’s intervention will go a long way.”

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