The Federal Government has pledged to expand national electricity access to over 80 per cent within five years, while eliminating the gap between installed and available power generation over the next three years. Speaking through Special Adviser Martins Olajide at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group event in Lagos, Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe detailed key initiatives designed to tackle the ongoing energy crisis constraining Nigeria’s industrial growth.
Central to the strategic plan is aligning with NERC standards to reduce Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses to under 16.92 per cent within three years. To improve grid stability and delivery, the government is strengthening key transmission corridors along Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano, rolling out seven million meters, training 5,000 workers, and directly connecting captive economic clusters to industrial hubs. These reforms also include transitioning to an independent, government-free electricity market aimed at increasing liquidity, clearing debt, and achieving long-term sustainability to support President Bola Tinubu’s vision of a $1tn economy capable of competing across the AfCFTA’s 1.4 billion consumers.
The urgency of these measures highlights the steep price of Nigeria's current power deficit. About 62 per cent of the country's 13,625 MW installed grid capacity sits idle, providing an average daily supply of under 5,000 MW against a peak demand of roughly 20,000 MW. This shortfall forced Nigerians to spend N16.5tn on private self-generation in 2023 far outstripping the N1tn spent on grid revenue. According to World Bank estimates, unreliable power causes $25bn in annual economic losses, while manufacturers report that energy alone consumes 30 to 40 per cent of their total operational costs.
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Reinforcing the severity of the crisis, Dr. Oluwasegun Osidipe, Research Director at the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, noted that power shortages ranked as the primary operational bottleneck in the Q2 2026 Manufacturers’ CEO Confidence Index. He stressed that heavy spending on alternative power severely undermines local competitiveness, while warning that industries face additional compounding burdens, including regulatory tyranny from overlapping agencies, unfavorable exchange rates, high dependence on imported raw materials, and conflicting monetary and fiscal policies.
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