Electricity distribution companies across the country billed customers a total of N255.19bn for power supplied in October 2025, but collected N210.92bn, leading to combined losses from unbilled energy and unpaid bills that continue to strain the liquidity of the power sector.This is according to the latest commercial performance factsheet released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
The NERC report showed that the 11 DisCos received electricity worth N303.85bn from the national grid in October, representing an 8.73 per cent increase over September. However, they were unable to fully convert the energy received into billable revenue, as the value of energy billed declined by 5.65 per cent to N255.19bn.This left a gap of N48.66bn attributable to electricity supplied but not billed to customers during the month. As a result, industry-wide billing efficiency dropped to 83.99 per cent, a 2.45 percentage-point decline from September, meaning that more than 16 per cent of power delivered to DisCos was never captured in customer bills.
Despite the setback in billing, revenue collection performance improved. Total collections rose by 7.48 per cent month-on-month to N210.92bn, lifting collection efficiency to 82.66 per cent, up 1.40 percentage points from September. NERC explained that instances where collection efficiency exceeded 100 per cent in some DisCos were largely due to the recovery of outstanding debts from previous months.
However, even with the improvement in collections, the sector continued to record significant shortfalls.
Of the N255.19bn billed in October, DisCos failed to collect N44.27bn, compounding the losses from unbilled energy. Taken together, the weaknesses in billing and collection translated into a recovery efficiency of 82.49 per cent, reflecting the proportion of allowed revenue that was actually realised by operators.