DisCos Collect N603.6bn As Lower Power Offtake Exposes Persistent Revenue Losses

By Olumide Johnson

Electricity distribution companies collected N603.64 billion from customers in Q2 2026 even as the volume of electricity available to them declined, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)’s Q2 report.

DEVELOPMENT:

Average electricity offtake by the 11 DisCos fell to 3,197.03MWh/h from 3,309.48MWh/h in Q1, a 3.40 percent decline. Despite the lower supply, overall offtake performance stood at 94.07 percent against available partially contracted capacity of 3,398.41MWh/h.

The DisCos received 6,982.32GWh but billed customers for only 5,812.31GWh. NERC stated: “This translates to an overall energy accounting efficiency of 83.24 per cent and represents a 0.24pp decrease compared to 2026/Q1 (83.48 percent).”

DATA:

The value of electricity off-taken stood at N946.57 billion, while customer billing reached N744.67 billion, producing billing efficiency of 78.67 percent. DisCos collected N603.64 billion, equivalent to 81.06 percent collection efficiency, up from 78.95 percent in Q1. The N141.03 billion gap between billing and collections remained significant.

Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses stood at 36.23 percent, 19.31 percentage points above the 16.92 percent MYTO target. NERC said: “The ATC&C loss of 36.23 percent is 19.31pp higher than the 2026 MYTO target (16.92 percent) and translates to a cumulative revenue loss of N129.07 billion across all DisCos.”

SIGNIFICANCE:

The data points to a power market where improved collections are occurring alongside substantial inefficiencies. Although collection efficiency improved by 2.11 percentage points, all DisCos missed their ATC&C targets.

NERC stated that “Kaduna DisCo recording the worst underperformance relative to the target (Actual – 67.70 percent vs target – 18.18 percent).”

The DisCos collectively remitted N385.44 billion against N410.38 billion in upstream invoices, leaving N24.94 billion outstanding. The federal government also covered about 50 percent, or N321.26 billion, of generation costs through subsidies.

NEXT MOVE:

Investors should watch whether improved collections translate into sustained reductions in ATC&C losses and stronger market remittances, while monitoring the continuing subsidy burden and DisCo performance against MYTO targets.

OUR LENS:

The deeper issue is not simply how much DisCos collect, but how efficiently electricity moves from generation through billing to cash recovery. Q2 shows that collection performance can improve while the sector continues to lose substantial revenue through energy-accounting, billing and ATC&C inefficiencies. The sustainability of the electricity market therefore rests increasingly on converting billed energy into actual cash and reducing the structural leakage between supply, billing and collection.

Olumide Johnson is a journalist, reporting on energy, maritime, business, and developments shaping Nigeria’s economy.