The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Thursday said electricity distribution companies (DisCos) installed a total of 187,194 meters in the first quarter of 2025.

NERC announced this in its 2025 First Quarter Report, published on its website in Abuja.

According to the report, the figure marks a marginal increase of 0.41 per cent compared to the 186,431 meters installed in Q4 of 2024.

The commission in the report said that the new installations pushed the end-user metering rate upward to 46.98 per cent from the 46.57 per cent recorded in the previous quarter.

It said, “Out of 187,194 meters installed in the quarter under review, 148,713 meters, representing 79.44 per cent of total installations, were deployed under the Meter Asset Programme (MAP). While 36,787 meters representing 19.65 per cent of meters installed came through the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF), additionally, 1,074 meters, representing 0.57 per cent of the meters, were installed under the DisCo Financed framework. 620 meters representing 0.33 per cent were installed under the Vendor Financed scheme framework.’’

According to the report, Ibadan, Ikeja, and Abuja DisCos recorded the highest number of meter installations in the quarter under review.

It said, “The DisCos accounted for 22.80 per cent, 21.80 per cent, and 13.57 per cent, respectively, of the total installations. Compared to 2024/Q4, Yola DisCo at -56.70 per cent, Ikeja DisCo at -23.62 per cent, and Enugu DisCo at -12.31 per cent recorded significant declines.’’

The report also said that as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, the commission has continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo.

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 feed.

(NAN)