The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says electricity distribution companies (DisCos) lost about N310bn in the first quarter of 2026 due to unbilled energy and poor revenue collection.

This was revealed in a commercial performance factsheet released by the Commission.

According to the report, despite receiving electricity worth over N907bn during the period, the 11 electricity distribution companies failed to bill a significant portion of the energy supplied to them and were unable to collect all revenues from customers who were billed.

The data showed that cumulative losses from unbilled energy and uncollected bills reached N309.73bn in the first quarter, comprising N150.36bn in unbilled energy and N159.37bn in uncollected revenue.

In January, the DisCos received energy valued at N336.43bn. They billed customers N268.20bn, and left N68.23bn worth of electricity unbilled. Additionally, the firms collected only N204.74bn from the N268.20bn billed, resulting in N63.46bn in uncollected revenue.

The month recorded a billing efficiency of 79.72 per cent and a collection efficiency of 76.34 per cent, translating to a revenue recovery efficiency of 69.16 per cent.

There was a slight performance improvement in February as the DisCos received energy worth N277.09bn. Customers were billed N242.29bn, while the remaining N34.80bn worth of energy was unbilled. Out of the billed amount, N196.68bn was collected, while N45.61bn remained outstanding.

The billing efficiency rose to 87.44 per cent, while collection efficiency improved to 81.17 per cent. Overall revenue recovery efficiency stood at 80.67 per cent, the highest recorded during the quarter.

In March, DisCos received increased energy valued at N293.76bn. The companies billed customers N246.43bn, leaving N47.33bn worth of energy unbilled. Revenue collection stood at N196.13bn, resulting in N50.30bn in uncollected bills.

Billing efficiency for the month was 83.89 per cent, and collection efficiency stood at 79.59 per cent, while revenue recovery efficiency was 81.05 per cent.

Overall, the DisCos received energy valued at N907.28bn during the first quarter, billed N756.92bn and collected N597.55bn, indicating that customers owed the DisCos N159.37bn in new uncollected bills across the three months.

The reports showed significant differences in operational performance among the distribution companies.