Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCos) collected a total of N553.63 billion in the first quarter of 2025, even as consumers continued to deal with unreliable power supply, frequent outages, and billing concerns.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in its Q1 2025 report, said the amount marks an 8.59% increase—about N43.79 billion—compared to the N509.84 billion recorded in the previous quarter (Q4 2024).

Despite the rise in revenue, many households and businesses still faced unstable electricity delivery. Although power generation rose slightly from 9,289.95 gigawatt-hours in Q4 2024 to 10,304.47GWh in Q1 2025, a significant portion of the energy was either lost in transit or not billed.

The report showed that DisCos received 8,169GWh of electricity from the national grid but only billed customers for 6,631.92GWh. This drop in billing efficiency—from 83.66% to 81.18%—indicates that a large amount of electricity was unaccounted for. Collection efficiency also declined to 74.39%, meaning nearly N191 billion in revenue was not recovered.

Overall losses—technical, commercial, and collection-related—hit 39.61%, well above the industry target of 20.54%.

Interestingly, the grid remained stable without any collapses between January and March 2025, a rare improvement after 12 collapses in 2024. However, NERC pointed out that several technical parameters were still being violated. System frequencies and voltages frequently went beyond the safe operating limits, raising concerns about potential damage to sensitive equipment and long-term grid stability.

NERC said it is working with the System Operator to address these problems and improve grid coordination.

While the absence of system collapse may appear encouraging, experts and electricity consumers say power supply quality remains poor, with many still paying high rates for inadequate service.