Improved metering pushes DisCos’ revenue up by 44.50%

The total revenue collected by the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in 2021 stood at N761.17 billion, an increase of 44.50 percent over the N526.77 billion they collected in 2020.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which disclosed this in its Nigerian DisCos Electricity report released yesterday, said the improved revenue is attributable to the increased number of metered customers.

According to the report, “The number of metered customers rose by 36.18 percent from 3.51 million in 2020 to 4.77 million in 2021, while estimated billing customers decreased by 16.32 percent from 6.86 million in 2020 to 5.74 million in 2021.”

The report also showed that the total number of customers recorded in 2021 increased marginally from 10.37 million in 2020 to 10.51 million in 2021.

The report also showed that Ibadan DisCo has the highest number of metered customers with 782,105 while Yola DisCo has the lowest number of metered customers with 65,098.

However, Ikeja DisCo led in revenue generation with N155,012.01 million followed by Eko DisCo with N119,878.19 million while Yola DisCo brought up the rear with just N9,804.00 million during the period.

Nigerians have been facing epileptic electricity supply in recent times with the National grid collapsing seven times this year alone.

To reduce the rate of grid failures, the ministry of power has promised that the federal government would fast-track the purchase and installation of a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.