The power sector lost about N187bn to unbilled energy between July and October 2025, as data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission revealed that electricity distribution companies failed to issue this amount as bills to customers during the period, underscoring persistent inefficiencies that continue to weaken the industry’s liquidity.
According to NERC’s Commercial Performance of Distribution Companies factsheets, the 11 DisCos received electricity valued at N300.04bn in July but billed customers only N243.14bn, leaving N54.9bn unbilled and translating to a billing efficiency of 81.04 per cent.
In August, billing efficiency improved slightly to 83.85 per cent, but N45.97bn worth of energy was still not billed out of the N284.64bn received. September recorded the best performance within the period, with billing efficiency rising to 86.43 per cent, though losses remained significant at N37.91bn.
The situation worsened again in October, when DisCos received power worth N303.85bn but billed only N255.19bn, leaving a shortfall of N48.66bn.
Billing efficiency declined to 83.99 per cent, with more than 16 per cent of electricity delivered to DisCos going unbilled. NERC noted that billing efficiency dropped by 2.45 percentage points in October compared with September, despite higher energy intake from the national grid.
