Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies recovered 81.06 per cent of what they billed in the second quarter of 2026, yet more than a third of the power they received still went uncounted or unpaid, according to a new report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The quarterly report, released on Monday, showed that the 11 DisCos collected ₦603.64 billion out of ₦744.67 billion billed to customers. Collection efficiency rose by 2.11 percentage points from 78.95 per cent in the first quarter.
The weighted average Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) loss across all DisCos stood at 36.23 per cent. This comprised technical and commercial losses of 21.33 per cent and collection losses of 18.94 per cent.
The figure is 19.31 percentage points above the 2026 MYTO target of 16.92 per cent and translates to a cumulative revenue loss of ₦129.073 billion.
It was, however, an improvement of 1.21 percentage points on the first quarter’s 37.44 per cent.
NERC said no DisCo met its ATC&C target during the quarter. Kaduna DisCo recorded the widest gap, posting an actual loss of 67.70 per cent against a target of 18.18 per cent.
The regulator explained that ATC&C loss captures billing losses, which arise when a DisCo cannot bill for all the energy delivered to customers, and collection losses, which arise when it cannot collect all the bills issued.
On market remittance, DisCos owed a combined ₦410.38 billion in upstream invoices. This included ₦326.46 billion for DRO-adjusted generation costs payable to Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and ₦83.92 billion for transmission and administrative services by the Market Operator (MO).
The DisCos paid ₦385.44 billion, made up of ₦306.62 billion to NBET and ₦78.82 billion to the MO, leaving ₦24.94 billion outstanding. Remittance performance was 93.92 per cent, slightly lower than the 94.08 per cent recorded in the first quarter.
NERC also reported that the three international bilateral customers buying power from grid-connected generation companies paid $8.675 million against an $18.84 million invoice, a remittance rate of 46.02 per cent. Domestic bilateral customers paid ₦6,912.92 million against ₦7,551.70 million invoiced, or 91.54 per cent.
Average energy offtake by DisCos at their trading points was 3,197.03MWh/h in the quarter, down 112.45MWh/h, or 3.40 per cent, from 3,309.48MWh/h in the first quarter.
Overall offtake performance was 94.07 per cent, against available Partially Contracted Capacity of 3,398.41MWh/h.
