Electricity customers rise to 11.27m amid looming tariff hike

Amid a planned tariff hike in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the number of Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) customers in Nigeria increased from 11.06 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 11.27 million in the Third Quarter of 2023.

According to the NBS Nigeria Electricity Report for Q1 2023 released in Abuja on Wednesday, the figure showed an increase of 1.89 per cent.

The report focused on energy billed, revenue generated, and customers by DISCOS under the reviewed period.

On a year-on-year basis, customer numbers in Q1 2023 increased by 5.99 per cent from 10.63 million reported in Q1 2022 to 11.27 million in Q1 2023.

It said in Q1 2023, the number of metered customers stood at 5.31 million from the 5.13 million recorded in Q4 2022; this indicated a 3.61 per cent increase.

“On a year-on-year basis, this grew by 5.71 per cent from the figure reported in Q1 2022 at 4.79 million. ”
Similarly, the report said that estimated customers stood at 5.96 million in Q1 2023, higher by 0.40 per cent from the 5.93 million recorded in Q4 2022.

On a year-on-year basis, estimated customers increased by 1.99 per cent in Q1 2023 from 5.84 million recorded in Q1 2022.