- The Minister of Power has failed to meet the 6,000 megawatts power generation target in 2024 despite promises
- The situation was attributed to multiple cases of power infrastructure vandalism
- Nigeria’s power sector faces a myriad of challenges, including poor investment, ageing infrastructure, grid collapses
With a current power generation capacity of between 4,000 megawatts (MW) and 4,900 MW from 19 power generation plants, Nigeria faces a challenge with providing power for a population of approximately 200 million people.
The situation has persisted, with the incessant complaints of poor power supply, despite huge government borrowing to address challenges in the power sector.
To address the situation, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in September 2024, said the government aims to achieve 6,000 MW of power by the end of 2024 through a combination of hydroelectric and gas-fired power plants.
Adelabu also said the government targets to generate, transmit and distribute 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, 30 per cent of which will be renewable energy.
He also noted that power generation under President Bola Tinubu increased from four MW to 5,170 MW within a year in office.
In December 2024, the minister disclosed that the power grid will gain an additional 150MW capacity by the end of 2024 to meet the 6,000MW target through the Siemens-led Presidential Power Initiative (PPI).
He added that the government will rehabilitate 14 existing substations and install 23 new ones to improve power generation.
However, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said the country’s electricity generation capacity increased to 5,100.90 MW in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024.
In its Q3 2024 report released on December 20, 2024, NERC said power generation increased by 16.04 per cent (705.13MW) from the 4,395.77MW recorded in the second quarter (Q2) of 2024.
Adelabu fails to meet 6,000MW generation capacity target
As the curtains were drawn in 2024, the Power Minister failed to achieve the ambitious 6,000MW power generation capacity target.
The minister blamed incessant cases of vandalism of power infrastructure in the country, which stalled the attainment of the target.
Adelabu’s Special Adviser on Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Bolaji Tunji, stated this late last year, saying despite the setback, 1,000MW of power was added to the grid in 2024.
He said, “If you look at the situation when the current administration took over, the generation was just about 4,000 megawatts. However, within a year, about 1,000 megawatts were added. By November 27, we again reached a target of 5,231 megawatts.
“Indeed, a promise of 6,000 megawatts was made, and with what we were doing, we felt it was achievable. Unfortunately, the work of vandals set us back a bit. We are not resting on our oars to ensure additional supply to the grid.”
Target stalled by vandalism, debts
Nigeria’s power sector is confronted by many challenges, chief among which are vandalisation of infrastructure, ageing facilities, poor investment, frequent grid collapses, debts, and liquidity challenges.
On vandalism, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said the Federal Government spent N8.8 billion on repairs of vandalised power transmission towers across the country as of November 2024
TCN also said between January 13 and November 2024, 128 transmission towers had been destroyed either by vandals or bandits across the country.
Another reason that may be responsible for missing the target is the N2.7 trillion debt owed by electricity generation companies (GenCos).
Accumulating GenCos’ debts may not be unconnected with inefficient revenue generation by electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
Frequent grid collapse is another clog
Incessant cases of grid collapse also hampered the achievement of the 6,000 MW target.
The national grid has collapsed over 105 times in the last 10 years, 93 times under President Muhammadu Buhari and 12 times in the first 16 months of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In 2024 alone, the grid collapsed 12 times, with three consecutive collapses recorded within one week in October, while multiple collapses were recorded in November 2024.
Nigeria loses $26bn yearly to electricity shortages –Report
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that Nigeria suffers an estimated annual economic loss of $26 billion due to electricity shortages, according to a report, Africa Trade Barometer, by the Standard Bank.
According to the report, businesses shore up electricity shortages by spending nearly $22 billion annually on off-grid fuel, which leads to increased operational costs.
