The Federal Government of Nigeria paid a staggering ₦633.30 billion in electricity subsidies in the first quarter of 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s quarterly report, has disclosed.

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.

The 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.

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 energy billing efficiency as the total energy received by all DisCos standing at 7,171.93GWh, explaining 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.