The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says a total of 228,614 electricity meters were installed across Nigeria in the third quarter of 2025, indicating modest but steady progress in the country’s metering drive.
This is according to information contained in NERC’s Third Quarter 2025 report published on the commission’s website.
The report shows that while meter deployment continues to rise gradually, Nigeria still faces a significant metering gap, with nearly half of electricity customers remaining unmetered.
What the report is saying
NERC disclosed that the 228,614 meters installed in Q3 2025 represented a 0.73% increase compared to the 226,959 meters deployed in the second quarter of the year.
The Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework remained the dominant channel for meter deployment, accounting for 176,302 installations, or 77.12% of the total meters installed nationwide during the quarter.
This was followed by the Vendor Financed framework, which delivered 44,104 meters, representing 25.01% of total installations.
Other metering initiatives recorded significantly smaller contributions. The Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP) accounted for 7,902 meters, representing 3.46% of installations.
The Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) framework delivered 175 meters (0.08%), while the DisCo-financed framework recorded just 131 meters, or 0.06% of total installations.
As of the end of September 2025, NERC reported that 6,661,564 customers out of a total 12,030,315 active registered customers in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) had been metered. This translates to a national metering rate of 55.37%, meaning that nearly one in every two electricity customers in Nigeria remains without a prepaid meter.
The regulator acknowledged that the persistence of a large unmetered customer base continues to expose consumers to the risks of estimated billing and potential exploitation.
To mitigate this challenge, NERC said it has sustained the issuance of monthly energy caps for all feeders operated by electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
According to the commission, the energy caps set the maximum amount of electricity that can be billed to unmetered customers each month.
“This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month, based on gross energy received by the DisCo and consumption by metered customers on their respective feeders,” the commission stated.
Why this matters
While the incremental rise in meter deployment suggests gradual progress, industry analysts argue that the pace remains far below what is required to close Nigeria’s metering gap within a reasonable timeframe.
With more than 5.3 million registered customers still without meters, estimated billing continues to undermine consumer confidence in the power sector.
The slow pace of metering also limits revenue transparency for DisCos and complicates efforts to improve efficiency and service delivery across the electricity value chain.
What you should know
Nigeria’s national electricity metering rate has risen to 56.07% as of October 2025, according to NERC.
The September–October 2025 data provides an updated snapshot of customer metering performance across the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos), revealing both encouraging progress and ongoing challenges.
