The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has given the newly constituted interim board of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc a 12-month deadline to overhaul the utility and restore it to a sustainable growth trajectory.

The regulator identified high technical and commercial losses, alongside the company’s significant metering gap, as key areas requiring immediate attention.

The directive is part of NERC’s intensified intervention in Kaduna DisCo following its repeated failure to meet market obligations and prescribed performance benchmarks.

NERC Chairman, Musiliu Oseni, gave the directive in a statement issued by the commission and shared on its official X handle on Tuesday, while addressing members of the newly constituted Interim Board of Special Directors and the Interim Administrator of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company.

The statement read, “The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has tasked the newly constituted Interim Board of Special Directors of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc with implementing immediate interventions to reset the utility company and restore it to a sustainable growth trajectory within 12 months.”

Oseni said the board was expected to deliver measurable improvements immediately, noting that the commission had undertaken a similar intervention in 2024 that led to a significant improvement in the DisCo’s performance before its former investors regained control.

“We expect a lot from you, and the Administrator will bring you up to speed to ensure that you meet the target within one year. Most importantly, we want to begin to see progress immediately,” he said.

He identified Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company’s high Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses, as well as its substantial metering deficit, as major challenges the new management must urgently address.

The intervention comes at a critical juncture for Nigeria’s electricity distribution sector, where inadequate metering, energy theft, weak revenue collection and technical losses continue to undermine the financial viability of DisCos and the reliability of power supply.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises also called on the new management to leverage existing metering initiatives to close the metering gap across KAEDC’s franchise area.