The Federal Government paid N633.30 billion on electricity subsidy in the first quarter of this year, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has reported.
According to the Commission’s just published quarterly report on the performance of the industry, the subsidy represented a 150.5% increase from N252.76 billion the government incurred in the corresponding quarter of 2023.
Curiously, the report also showed that the subsidy paid on electricity supply in Q1 this year was higher than the N628.61 billion paid from January to December 2023.
The electricity industry regulator blamed the increase on the government’s policy to harmonise exchange rates, as well as the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all electricity distribution companies.
The commission clarified: “It is important to note that due to the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all DisCos, the Government incurred a subsidy obligation of N633.30 billion in 2024/Q1, an average of N211.10 billion per month.”
On revenue collection, the report said the DisCos recorded a shortfall, as the total revenue in the period was N291.62 billion out of N368.65 billion billed to customers.
Similarly, the total energy received by all DisCos during the quarter was 7,171.93GWh while the energy billed to end-use customers was 5,769.52GWh, translating into an overall billing efficiency of 80.45%.
A breakdown of the revenue generated by the DisCos showed that Ikeja DisCo collected the highest revenue N57.88 billion in the period, followed by Eko DisCo at 48.74 billion while Yola DisCo generated the least revenue at N5.46bn.
Also, out of the total revenue collected in the period by the distribution companies indicated that Abuja DisCo collected N48.60 billion, Ibadan DisCo generated N30.35 billion, Benin DisCo raked in N22.46 billion, Enugu DisCo collected N21.24 billion, and Port Harcourt DisCo collected N20.39 billion.
Others are Kano DisCo, which raked in N13.62 billion as revenue; Jos DisCo collected N13.29 billion, and Kaduna DisCo, which generated N9.60 billion as revenue in the quarter under review.
