About 4.85 million active electricity customers remained without meters as at the end of June 2026, despite a sharp increase in monthly installations by the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos).

This comes as the latest data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on metering status showed that the number of metered customers increased to 7,743,839 in June from 7,540,318 in May, taking the national metering rate to 61.51 per cent.

This leaves 4,845,647 unmetered customers out of the 12,589,486 active customers recorded by the DisCos in June.

The data showed that DisCos installed 203,521 meters during the month, almost double the 104,585 metered in May.

Despite the increase in installations, the pace of deployment remained uneven across the distribution companies, with rates ranging from 35.42 per cent in Jos to 88.7 per cent in Eko.

The persistent metering gap remains significant for electricity consumers and the distribution market, as millions of customers continue to fall outside the metered customer base despite the latest increase in installations.

Eko DisCo recorded the highest metering rate in June at 88.7 per cent, followed by Ikeja at 87.91 per cent and Abuja at 81.38 per cent.

Port Harcourt DisCo recorded a metering rate of 68.66 per cent, while Benin stood at 61.01 per cent. Ibadan and Enugu recorded 57.62 per cent and 51.96 per cent, respectively.

The lowest coverage was recorded by Jos DisCo at 35.42 per cent, followed by Yola at 36.2 per cent, Kaduna at 39.83 per cent and Kano at 40.67 per cent.

The June data also showed that Ibadan had the largest number of newly metered customers during the month, with 80,643 installations, although NERC noted that the figure included meter installations between January and May 2026 that had not previously been reported by the DisCo.

Kano followed with 44,753 newly metered customers, while Enugu recorded 10,805. Abuja installed 18,419 meters, Benin 18,739 and Port Harcourt 5,713. Eko added 4,744 metered customers during the month, while Yola recorded 5,202, Jos 6,077 and Kaduna 7,816. Ikeja recorded 610 new installations.

The Commission’s figures showed that the national metering gap remained significant despite the month-on-month improvement, with unmetered customers accounting for 38.49 per cent of the active customer base at the end of June.

The distribution of metering coverage highlights the wide disparity in the ability of DisCos to provide customers with individual consumption measurement, with three utilities — Eko, Ikeja and Abuja — above the 70 per cent threshold, while four others remained below 50 per cent.