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Analysis of available statistics has shown that about 37.19 million households in Nigeria lack access to grid electricity.
Figures provided by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission indicate that the number of electricity consumers across the country stands at 12.31 million customers.
The number of households in Nigeria is estimated at 49.5 million.
Assuming one electricity customer represents one household, it means that 37.19 million households lack access to grid electricity, served by 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) across the nation.
This means that 75.13 per cent of households across the country lack access to grid electricity.
The number and percentage of households connected to the national grid might actually be lesser because some customers served by the DisCos are business entities and not households only.
However, there are household electricity consumers in some communities, especially rural areas, who enjoy other forms of electricity that are not connected to the national grid.
The World Bank had reported that as of 2023, 61.2 per cent of Nigerians had one of access to electricity or the other. This leaves 38.9 per cent of the entire population without access to any form of electricity.
A factsheet obtained from NERC showed that the total number of active electricity customers increased from 12.23 million in January to 12.31 million in February.
THE WHISTLER reports that out of the 12.31 million customers, a total of 5.10 million were still on estimated billing as of February 2026.
This shows that about 41.43 per cent of active electricity customers were on estimated billing, while 58.57 per cent were metered.
Estimated billing has been one of the challenges bedevilling the Nigerian electricity industry.
This means that the customers are billed according to what they are estimated to have consumed within a month period rather than what they actually consumed.
Sometimes, this makes recovery of debts from customers difficult as electricity consumers often complain of over billing.
A number of efforts had been initiated by the distribution companies to close the metering gaps, but these have not always delivered the required results.
Even interventions by the Federal Government government have not closed the metering gaps across the service areas.
A further analysis of the NERC factsheet shows that the 11 DisCos recorded a combined 241,590 newly metered customers in the first two months of 2026.
According to the factsheet, the national metering rate rose from 57.93 per cent in January to 58.57 per cent in February.
The report shows that 119,792 customers were metered in January, while 121,798 customers received meters in February, reflecting a modest month-on-month increase in metering efforts across the country.
On aggregate, the number of metered customers rose from 7.09 million to 7.21 million between January and February.
According to NERC,
among the 11 electricity distribution companies, Eko and Ikeja DisCos maintained the strongest metering performance, recording metering rates above 87 per cent in February.
It stated that Eko DisCo improved slightly from 87.15 per cent in January to 87.62 per cent in February, while Ikeja DisCo rose from 86.69 per cent to 87.16 per cent.
The commission added that Abuja DisCo also posted a strong performance, with its metering rate climbing from 78.54 per cent in January to 79.37 per cent in February after adding 18,352 newly metered customers during the month.
During the period, Port Harcourt DisCo increased its metering rate from 65.47 per cent in January to 66.36 per cent in February.
Benin DisCo moved from 55.16 per cent to 56.75 per cent after adding more than 25,000 customers in each of the two months under review.
Also, Ibadan and Enugu DisCos remained slightly above the 50 per cent threshold. Ibadan improved from 51.99 per cent in January to 52.23 per cent in February, while Enugu recorded only a marginal increase from 51.79 per cent to 51.83 per cent after metering just 691 customers in February.
According to NERC, several DisCos based in the northern parts of the country continued to struggle with low metering penetration.
It stated that Jos DisCo increased its metering rate from 32.94 per cent in January to 34.04 per cent in February, while Kaduna DisCo improved from 34.82 per cent to 35.59 per cent.
Kano DisCo posted the weakest metering expansion during the period, adding only 161 customers in January and 149 in February, with its metering rate stagnating around 35.37 per cent.
Yola DisCo remained the least metered distribution company nationwide. It recorded a slight improvement from 30.85 per cent in January to 31.86 per cent in February.
Speaking with THE WHISTLER, the Executive Secretary of the Power and Energy Consumers Advocates of Nigeria (PECAN), Comrade Uket Obonga,
challenged the reliability of electricity access data in Nigeria.
He cited inconsistencies in customer numbers over recent years and discrepancies in NERC reports.
Obonga called for a comprehensive customer enumeration due to distrust among sector operators and the prevalence of frozen accounts.
He said, “The World Bank’s report from last year stated that the figure of Nigerians without access to electricity was 92.5 million.
“As of 2022-2023, it was 85 point something million. Whatever data NERC is putting out there is not reliable and accurate.
“The DisCos as presently constituted will and can never give you correct data. What does it take the Federal Government to conduct a customer enumeration in Nigeria?”
An energy analyst, Dr. Abiodun Daramola, said the figures reveal the scale of Nigeria’s electricity access crisis and the urgent need for structural reforms in the power sector.
According to him, having over 75 per cent of households without reliable grid access is a major setback for economic productivity, education, healthcare, and industrial growth.
Daramola said, “The continued dependence on estimated billing also exposes the inefficiency of the distribution segment of the power sector.
“With over 41 per cent of customers still unmetered, consumer confidence in the electricity market will remain weak.
“Many Nigerians see estimated billing as exploitative because it disconnects payment from actual consumption.
“This distrust contributes to low revenue recovery for DisCos and persistent disputes between operators and consumers.”
He noted that while the slight increase in metering rates is encouraging, the pace remains too slow to address the country’s widening electricity deficit.
Daramola argued that the Federal Government must prioritise investment in transmission infrastructure and incentivise private-sector participation in mini-grid and renewable energy projects, especially in underserved rural communities.
Electricity consumer advocate, Iyabo Babatunde, described the continued dependence on estimated billing as a major injustice against Nigerians.
She said the fact that more than five million customers were still unmetered showed that distribution companies have not done enough to improve transparency and accountability.
Babatunde stressed that estimated billing continues to fuel distrust between consumers and DisCos because many households believe they were being charged unfairly for electricity they did not consume.
She called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to impose stricter sanctions on DisCos that fail to meet metering targets and to expand programmes that make meters more affordable and accessible to low-income households.
Babatunde said, “While the modest increase in metering numbers is commendable, the pace is too slow for a country of Nigeria’s size and population. At the current rate, it could take many years to close the metering gap.
“The government and private operators must therefore accelerate investments in smart metering infrastructure, decentralised energy systems, and rural electrification projects. Without bold reforms, the sector may continue to underperform despite repeated interventions.”
Energy analyst, Engr. Samson Obikwe, said the regional disparity in metering performance reflects deeper operational and security challenges within Nigeria’s electricity distribution network.
He observes that DisCos in Lagos and Abuja have achieved stronger metering penetration because of higher revenue collection, urban density, and better infrastructure, while northern DisCos continue to struggle due to weak investment capacity and difficult operating environments.
Obikwe warned that unless metering gaps were aggressively addressed, revenue leakages and consumer resistance to bill payments would continue to undermine the financial viability of the electricity market.
He added that decentralised energy solutions such as solar mini-grids may become the fastest route to electrifying millions of households currently excluded from the national grid.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described electricity as critical to Nigeria’s national development, lamenting that the recurring collapse of the national grid continues to expose the government’s inability to address the country’s persistent power crisis.
Reacting to the inadequate and epileptic supply across the country, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Emem Ememobong, said the instability in the power sector remains a major setback to economic growth and industrial development.
“As long as we continue to grapple with this issue, our manufacturing sector will continue to crawl and that means we will continue to depend on import for very basic things — grounding our economy,” Ememobong stated in a response to a WhatsApp message.
He noted that stable electricity supply remains essential for sustainable economic growth, warning that the continued collapse of the national grid would further weaken local production capacity and worsen Nigeria’s dependence on imported goods.
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone line of the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, were either unanswered or the line remained engaged for extended periods.
Abdullahi later responded through a text message, promising to return the call, but had yet to do so as of press time.
-Everest AMAEFULE, Tope SUNDAY, Chris UGWU, Gbade OGUNWALE and Kasarahchi ANIAGOLU
37.19 Million Nigerian Households Lack Access To Grid Electricity – Investigation is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
