July 31, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government paid N633.30 billion in electricity subsidies in the first quarter of 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said in its quarterly report.
This amount represents a 150.5% increase from the N252.76 Billion paid in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The report attributes the significant increase to the government’s policy to harmonise exchange rates and the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all electricity distribution companies.
Despite the substantial subsidy, the distribution companies (DisCos), recorded a revenue shortfall, collecting only N291.62 billion out of N368.65 billion billed to customers.
The report also highlights the energy billing efficiency, with the total energy received by all DisCos standing at 7,171.93GWh, while the energy billed to end-use customers was 5,769.52GWh, resulting in an overall billing efficiency of 80.45%.
Ikeja DisCo topped the revenue collection chart with N57.88 billion, followed closely by Eko DisCo with N48.74 billion. Yola DisCo recorded the lowest revenue collection at N5.46 billion.
