The Federal Government has paid a the sum of ₦633.30 billion in electricity subsidies in the first quarter of 2024.
This is according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s quarterly report.
It said the N633.30 billion represents a 150.5% increase from the ₦252.76 billion paid in the fourth quarter of 2023 paid by the federal government.
According to the report, government’s policy to harmonize exchange rates and the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all electricity distribution companies is attributed to the significant increase.
It added that the distribution companies (DisCos), despite the substantial subsidy, recorded a revenue shortfall, collecting only ₦291.62 billion out of ₦368.65 billion billed to customers.
The report further revealed that the energy billing efficiency as the total energy received by all DisCos stood at 7,171.93GWh, adding that the energy billed to end-use customers was 5,769.52GWh, resulting in an overall billing efficiency of 80.45%.
Ikeja DisCo topped the revenue collection chart followed by Eko DisCo and Yola DisCo with ₦57.88 billion, ₦48.74 billion and ₦5.46 billion respectively.