KEY POINTS
- Federal Government allocates N28 billion for prepaid meter rollout under new scheme.
- DisCos mandated to install meters for top-tier customers by December 2025.
- New fund aims to close Nigeria’s seven-million-meter gap and restore market confidence.
Nigeria’s Federal Government has approved the release of N28 billion for electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to procure and install prepaid meters across the country, in a renewed effort to address chronic metering gaps and billing disputes that have long plagued the power sector.
The funds, issued through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, form part of the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) Tranche B scheme. According to the regulator’s latest Order No: NERC/2025/107, the scheme provides a market-driven financing structure to accelerate meter deployment for unmetered customers at no cost, while ensuring a sustainable revenue model for DisCos.
The Commission explained that the move seeks to improve Nigeria’s poor metering coverage, which has contributed to widespread energy theft, weak revenue collection, and the accumulation of debt across the electricity value chain.
Government Targets 2025 Completion for Meter Rollout
Under the new framework, the N28 billion allocation will be distributed to DisCos based on their market collection shares as of July 2025. Each company must use its share to install meters for Band A and Band B customers categories representing premium and mid-level power consumers, before the year’s end.
NERC has given DisCos 10 days from the order’s effective date of October 6, 2025, to conduct transparent procurement exercises and select Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) with verifiable stocks ready for immediate deployment. These selections must then be submitted within 15 days for the regulator’s “No-Objection” clearance.
To support Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, NERC also introduced a mandatory 30% local content requirement for all participating MAPs, insisting that partnerships be established with domestic meter assemblers or producers.
DisCos will receive 60% of contract payments after verified delivery of meters, while the remaining 40% will be released only upon successful installation. Any DisCo found to have caused delays due to poor network readiness or inaccurate customer data will face penalties equivalent to the cost of the uninstalled meters. All installations under this funding phase must be completed by December 31, 2025.
Nigeria’s metering gap, estimated at over seven million customers, remains one of the largest in Africa. The shortfall has deepened the sector’s liquidity problems, widened billing controversies, and eroded consumer trust in the electricity system.
Previous efforts to fix the issue, including the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) programme introduced in 2018 and the Central Bank-backed National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), achieved only limited results due to poor implementation and weak financing models.
Unlike earlier interventions, the Meter Acquisition Fund relies on DisCos’ revenue-backed contributions rather than government or CBN grants. NERC hopes the structure will create a self-sustaining financing mechanism that can gradually close the metering deficit while boosting investor confidence in the power market.
According to the Commission’s second-quarter report for 2025, DisCos installed a total of 225,631 meters—an increase of 20.5% from the first quarter. Of these, 147,823 were deployed through the MAP framework, 65,315 under the MAF scheme, and the remainder through vendor-financed and DisCo-funded arrangements.
