The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s metering factsheet, published on 2 September 2026, compares May and June 2026. National metering coverage was 60.22% in May and 61.51% at the end of June. June had 7,743,839 metered customers among 12,589,486 active customers. The publication is a September development, while the observations refer to June customer stocks and monthly installation flows. Installing a meter does not imply an additional grid connection or new electricity generation. The denominator is active registered customers, rather than the population.

Haber Paper calculates an end-June unmetered gap of 12,589,486 minus 7,743,839, or 4,845,647 customers. The complement of the reported 61.51% coverage is 38.49%, retaining the source’s rounding. Coverage increased by 1.29 percentage points between May and June. Calling this 1.29% growth would be incorrect: relative to May’s rate, the increase is approximately 2.14%. Coverage can also change as the customer base changes, so it is not identical to installation count. Customer stocks and monthly additions should remain separate indicators.

The source records 104,585 additional customers metered in May and 203,521 in June. June’s flow was 1.946 times May’s, an increase of approximately 94.60%. Two months do not establish that the pace will persist. Dividing the fixed June gap by June installations gives 23.81 months of equivalent workload. This is only scale arithmetic, not a completion timetable or forecast. New customers, replacement meters, failures, field conditions and resources in later months can change the result. No definite completion date is attached to that illustration.

The technical benefit is converting unmeasured consumption into a customer-specific record. A meter produces consumption data for billing but does not independently eliminate conductor losses or supply energy during an outage. Reliable measurement requires correct installation, testing, data transmission and matching to a customer account. Delivery of equipment or storage in a warehouse is not the same as starting the service. Accurate meter data combined with a distribution company’s energy balance can indicate where losses need investigation; it cannot identify every cause on its own.

The economic chain has several steps: measured consumption can become an accurate bill, a bill can become collections, and collections can fund maintenance and investment. New-device counts guarantee none of these transitions automatically. Estimating revenue effects requires tariffs, actual consumption, payment rates, measurement costs and the previous billing method. The factsheet does not provide them together, so this analysis estimates neither revenue per meter nor investment returns. Transparent consumption records can assist customer-dispute assessment, but the size of any dispute reduction also requires separate operating evidence.

Subsequent monitoring should compare installations with a stock of working meters integrated into billing. Continuing the monthly coverage series under a consistent customer definition would make progress clearer; expansion or cleaning of account registers should explain denominator changes separately. Utility-level ratios are not a straightforward efficiency ranking because customer mixes and service areas differ. Nigeria illustrates how rapid short-term installation and a substantial remaining gap can coexist. Metering, physical electricity supply and commercial cash flow are distinct but connected capabilities for investment planning.