Nigeria targets faster prepaid meter rollout to end estimated billing

In a bid to strengthen the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), Joseph Tegbe, Nigeria’s minister of power, has disclosed plans to work with stakeholders to accelerate the rollout of prepaid meters to electricity customers.

Tegbe, who spoke at the second quarter Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Stakeholders Meeting held in Abuja, argued that estimated billing had for too long penalised poor Nigerians while masking systemic losses.

BusinessDay’s check on Nigeria’s metering rate showed that the total number of metered customers rose to 6,966,584 out of 12,163,412 active electricity customers in the period, representing 57.27 percent at the end of December 2025.

Ikeja DisCo had the highest metering rate at 86.40 percent, with 1,130,213 customers metered out of its 1,308,042 active customers. Eko DisCo also recorded a high metering rate at 85.87 percent, with 550,764 customers metered out of its 641,411 active customers. The report also showed that Abuja DisCo recorded a 77.81 percent metering rate with 1,044,014 metered customers out of 1,341,807 active customers.

Tegbe, however, assured that working with stakeholders, his ministry will accelerate metering rollout and reduce ATC&C losses. The minister also hint on plans to develop a sustainable tariff transition pathway designed to protect the most vulnerable consumers from cost shocks while offering investors the long-term predictability that serious capital commitment demands.

“Tariff reform could only hold if payment compliance was enforced across the board,” he said.

Tegbe stressed the need for transparent Derived Remittance Obligation calculations, arguing that trust in the electricity market could not rest on opaque arithmetic.

“Nigeria’s power crisis was not built by one hand, and it will not be fixed by one hand. GenCos, DisCos, TCN, NISO, regulators, and government must accept shared responsibility for both the depth of the problem and the discipline of the solution.”

On infrastructure, Tegbe called for power assets to be formally designated and treated as critical national assets, describing vandalism, grid sabotage, and energy theft as economic warfare against ordinary Nigerian households.

“Securing existing assets must run concurrently with optimising their output, with transmission weak points, spinning reserves, and priority substation relays all being actively addressed to improve near-term grid reliability,” he added.

The minister further stressed that his personal commitment will be anchored on three principles: transparency, with no hidden agendas; speed, through dismantling bureaucratic bottlenecks; and accountability, with consequences for those who undermine the sector. “Reform is not a promise deferred; it is a discipline being executed every day,” he added.