Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) in Nigeria recorded billing losses of N198.25 billion in the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest quarterly report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The report, released on Friday, showed that the total energy offtake by all DisCos during the quarter was valued at N955.19 billion in naira terms, but only N756.93 billion was actually billed to customers.
This translated to a billing efficiency of 79.24%, a decline of 2.79 percentage points compared to the 82.03% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Beyond billing shortfalls, the DisCos also struggled to collect what they billed. Of the N756.93 billion billed to customers in Q1, 2026, only ₦597.56 billion was collected, putting collection efficiency at 78.95%, a marginal drop of 0.41% percentage points from 79.36% in the preceding quarter.
Despite the dip in billing and collection performance, DisCos showed improvement in remitting funds upstream. The cumulative invoice payable by the DisCos stood at N421.18 billion consisting of N331.40 billion for DRO-adjusted generation costs from NBET4 and N89.78 billion for transmission and administrative services by the Market Operator (MO).
Out of this amount, the DisCos collectively remitted a total sum of ₦396.23 billion (₦312.48 billion for NBET and ₦83.74 billion for MO) with an outstanding balance of ₦24.95 billion. This translates to a remittance performance of 94.08% in 2026/Q1 compared to the 92.71% recorded in 2025/Q4.
The report also flagged weak remittence from international bilateral customers purchasing power from the grid-connected Generation Comapnies (GenCos). The three international bilateral customers made a cumulative payment of $4.825 million against the $17.48 million invoice issued by the MO for services rendered in 2026/Q1, remittance rate 27.57%.
Domestic bilateral customers fared considerably better, paying ₦5,816.28 million against the ₦6,122.35 million invoice issued by the MO for services rendered in 2026/Q1, representing a remittance rate of 95.00%.
In 2026/Q1, the average energy offtake by DisCos at their trading points was 3,309.48MWh/h, which represents a decrease of 309.73MWh/h (-8.56%) compared to the average offtake recorded in 2025/Q4 (3,619.21MWh/h). Cumulatively, DisCos recorded an overall offtake performance of 97.11%; the available Partially Contracted Capacity (PCC) during the quarter was 3,408.02MWh/h.
On a more positive note, DisCos recorded a modest improvement in Energy accounting efficiency (EAE), a metric that measures how effectively DisCos account for the energy they offtake at their trading points. Although the total energy received by all DisCos in 2026/Q1 was 7,148.47GWh, the energy billed to end-use customers was only 5,967.22GWh. This translates to an overall energy accounting efficiency of 83.48% and represents a 0.54pp increase compared to 2025/Q4 (82.94%).
The figures underscore persistent inefficiencies across Nigeria’s power distribution value chain, even as regulators continue to push for improved billing, metering, and revenue collection across the sector.
