Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) recorded a combined revenue gap of N92.93 billion in October, after billing only N255.19 billion out of N303.85 billion worth of energy received – a N48.66 billion billing shortfall.
Out of the total billings, it also collected N210.92 billion, leaving a N44.27 billion collection gap.These are contained in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) commercial performance factsheet for October, released on yesterday.
The disparity between energy received and energy billed translated to a billing efficiency of 83.99 per cent, representing a decline of 2.45 percentage points compared to September 2025.
This deterioration highlights persistent technical, commercial and metering challenges that continue to limit the ability of DisCos to convert supplied energy into billable consumption and revenue.
Although collection efficiency improved slightly to 82.66 per cent, up by 1.4 percentage points, the gap between billings and collected revenue remained substantial.
Cumulatively, the combined effect of billing inefficiency and collection gap meant that DisCos were unable to recover a significant portion of the value of electricity delivered within the period.
NERC’s data pointed to an allowed average tariff of N116.25 per kilowatt-hour, while the actual average collection stood at N95.89 per kilowatt-hour, reflecting a recovery efficiency of 82.49 per cent, down by 0.96 percentage points.
“Collection and recovery efficiency above 100 per cent is due to collections of outstanding bills from previous months,” the Commission stated.