The total number of electricity consumers in Nigeria rose by 1.78 percent to 12.33 million in the first Quarter of 2024 from 12.12 million in Q1 2023.

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its latest Nigeria Electricity Report.

On a year-on-year basis, electricity customers in Nigeria increased by 9.47 percent from 11.27 million reported in Q1 2023.

The report showed that while metered electricity customers stood at 5.91 million, unmetered or estimated billing customers represented 6.43 million in Q1 2024.

Metered customers rose by 5.38 percent from 5.61 million recorded in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile is higher by 10.22 percent from 5.83 million in Q4 2023.

“On a year-on-year basis, estimated customers increased by 7.88 percent in Q1 2024 from 5.96 million in Q1 2023”, the report stated. This portend a widening metering gap in Nigeria.

To close the metering gap, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in a recent order approved N21 billion to procure meters for electricity distribution companies.