The Federal Government subsidised electricity with N471.69 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 (Q4 2024), according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

It represented 57 per cent of the total energy generated in the period under review, being payment of subsidy arising from the suspension of the end-use customer tariff at the rates payable in July 2024.

NERC broke the news in its document titled: “Quarterly Report 2024.”

The report said: “The NBET invoice payable by the DisCos for 2024/Q4 was only ₦360.97 billion because the FGN has taken responsibility for ~57% (₦471.69 billion) of the total generation costs in the form of subsidies arising from the freezing of end-use customer tariffs at the rates payable in July 2024.”

NERC said local and international bilateral customers made payments during 2024/Q4 for outstanding Market Operator (MO) invoices from previous quarters.

According to the report, while “the international bilateral customers paid $2.98 million while the domestic bilateral customers paid ₦135.81 million.”

NERC said the total revenue collected by all DisCos in 2024/Q4 was ₦509.84 billion out of the ₦658.40 billion that was billed to customers.

The report noted that it translated to a collection efficiency of 77.44%.

In comparison, said NERC, the total revenue collected by all DisCos in 2024/Q3 was ₦466.69 billion out of the ₦626.02 billion billed to customers, which translated to a 74.55% collection efficiency.

It also said the 77.44% collection efficiency recorded in 2024/Q4 is +2.89pp higher than the collection efficiency recorded in 2024/Q3 (74.55%).

NERC said similar to the trend observed in 2024/Q3, Eko (90.00%) and Ikeja (82.63%) DisCos recorded the highest collection efficiencies in 2024/Q4.

Conversely, the report said, Jos DisCo recorded the lowest collection efficiency at 49.68%.

It further noted that a comparison of DisCos performance shows that eight DisCos recorded improvements in collection efficiency between 2024/Q3 and 2024/Q4, with Yola (+13.93pp) and Kano (+9.88pp) recording the greatest improvements.

NERC said conversely, “the remaining three DisCos recorded declines in collection efficiency with Jos (-3.61pp) and Abuja (-3.39pp) DisCos having the most significant declines over the period.”