Success Nwogu 
Despite being in the dark and running on power generating sets for most part of the period, electricity customers in the country received a total bill of N144.5 billion for the month of December last year. However, the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) could only collect only N98.36 billion out of the total sum.
The amount collected trans- lated to a collection efficiency of 73.12 per cent for the specified month. These were contained in the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) fact sheet on the commercial performance of DisCos for December, which was seen by New Telegraph yesterday.
According to the report, Ikeja Disco collected N20.00 billion of the N21.26 billion billed to its customers. This demonstrated the highest collection efficiency at 94.08 per cent. Eko DisCo came second as it collected N17.13 billion from a billing total of N20.39 billion for the month.
Data from the report showed that Jos and Yola Discos reported the month’s lowest collection efficiency. Jos DisCos collected N3.71 billion of the N8.12 billion billed to its consumers, representing 45.69 per cent collection efficiency while Yola Disco’s made N2.16 bil- lion out of a total billing of N4.71 billion representing 46.03 per cent collection efficiency.
On tariffs analysis, Ikeja Disco invoiced its customers at 87.37 per cent of the NERC-approved rate of N56.57 per KWh, making it the highest relative to the regulatory benchmark. Eko Disco came second as it charged N49.25 per KWh against the sanctioned N59.49 per KWh, which is 82.79 per cent tariff billing efficiency.
