The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has reported that electricity consumers in the country owe the distribution companies (DisCos) about N54 billion for power supplied to them in February this year
The commission, in its just published Factsheet for February, disclosed that the indebtedness derived from the N245.93 billion total billings by the 12 Discos out of which they recovered N191.75 billion, representing 77.9% collection efficiency by the companies.
The NERC also reported that in the month under review, 2,583.19 gigawatt-hours was the total energy received by the consumers while 2,137 GWh was the total energy billed, indicating a billing efficiency of 82.73% and an increase of 1.81% month-on-month.
This is even as the commission also reported that in February this year, the allowed average tariff stood at N116.18 per kilowatt-hour, but the Discos were able to collect an average of N88.21 per kWh, being a 75.9% recovery efficiency and 10.5% higher than their recovery in the preceding month.
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A further analysis of the NERC’s Factsheet report showed that Aba Power had the highest allowed tariff of N200.88 per kWh, but its actual average collection for the month was N127.58/kWh. The DisCo had N6.44 billion in total billings but raked in N3.47 billion, representing 53.90% collection efficiency.
Also, the report indicated that Abuja Disco recovered N31.7 billion out of the N35.67 billion billed consumers in February, representing the highest collection efficiency of 89.03%, followed by Eko Disco with a collection efficiency of 88.76%, even as EKEDC recovered N36.6 billion of the N41.24 billed its customers during the month.
In addition, the commission reported that Enugu Disco’s total billings stood at N17.95 billion but raked in N15.88 billion from its customers, representing 88.47% collection efficiency and that Ibadan Disco, operating in seven states, billed its customers N26.88 billion and collected N19.28 billion, accounting for 71.72 % of collection efficiency. Ikeja DisCo billed its customers N41.18 billion but recovered N33.35 billion from customers, indicating 81% collection efficiency rate.
It would be recalled that the NERC sanctioned eight DisCos for overbilling their customers as the challenge of inadequate meters continued to encourage billing abuses by the DisCos through estimated billing practice, which has persisted for decades in the power sector.
