Morganable Politics/Governance
Tegbe further disclosed that the Federal Government had commenced a nationwide technical audit of electricity infrastructure to identify defective equipment, assess the condition of transmission facilities and determine areas requiring immediate attention.
KaNo—
The Federal Government has approved plans to construct new Eastern and Western electricity grids as part of measures to address persistent national grid collapses and improve electricity supply across Nigeria.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this at the recent HBSAN Energy Conference in Lagos, where he outlined the government’s strategy to tackle ageing transmission infrastructure, recurring system failures and other challenges undermining electricity supply.
Tegbe said the government was preparing to commence procurement for the projects, expressing optimism that Nigerians would begin to experience improvements in electricity transmission within the next two to three years.
He explained that the proposed grid expansion formed part of broader efforts to strengthen the country’s electricity infrastructure, reduce pressure on existing transmission facilities and improve the reliability of power supply to homes and businesses.
According to him, the government has divided Nigeria into three energy zones to identify areas requiring urgent intervention, with particular attention to Lagos and Abuja, which account for a substantial proportion of electricity demand.
“We have clustered Nigeria into three energy zones. The first one is the one that demands 50 per cent. If you fix Lagos and you fix the Abuja corridors, you’ve solved more than half of the problem of Nigeria. Because you can’t do that alone based on operational efficiency, you also have to build out your grid.
“The President has approved that we commence the process of building out the grid: East and Western grid. We’re going through the procurement process, but it’s something you’ll see the benefits in two to three years,” the minister said.
Tegbe further disclosed that the Federal Government had commenced a nationwide technical audit of electricity infrastructure to identify defective equipment, assess the condition of transmission facilities and determine areas requiring immediate attention.
He explained that the exercise would enable the government to prioritise interventions based on identified technical problems rather than committing resources to repairs that might not address the underlying causes of electricity disruptions.
“We have started a technical audit across the entire country to say where do we have issues, and what issues specifically do we have. I don’t want to fix transformer issues where I have conductor and relay problems. I don’t want to fix insulators where the challenges I actually have are towers.
“So, we will finish that technical audit in the next couple of weeks. When we finish it, we then target our prioritised areas,” he stated.
The minister attributed some of the persistent challenges in the electricity transmission network to ageing infrastructure, revealing that several installations had remained operational for decades without comprehensive replacement.
He noted that some transmission towers and lines were constructed before the establishment of the defunct National Electric Power Authority, highlighting the scale of rehabilitation required to modernise the national grid.
“This government has inherited a problem of 50 years. Before I became the Minister of Power, honestly, I used to think that everybody in the power sector just didn’t know their left from right. But the reality is, some of the towers have gone down with some of the transmission lines there.
“When I went to the site, I saw some of them carrying the logo of ECN. Many people in this room might not know what ECN is. ECN predated NEPA. So, some of these things were built 50 years ago. That is the reality,” Tegbe added.
Meanwhile, a power sector advocacy organisation, PowerUp Nigeria, has urged the Federal Government to urgently overhaul the national grid, warning that persistent electricity disruptions are weakening industrial productivity and threatening Nigeria’s economic competitiveness.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Adetayo Adegbemle, raised the concern in a statement, describing repeated grid collapses and deteriorating infrastructure as major obstacles to sustainable economic development.
Adegbemle argued that Nigeria’s electricity challenges extended beyond inadequate generation capacity, stressing that persistent transmission failures had undermined confidence in the national electricity market.
“Let’s dispense with the euphemisms. Nigeria does not have a ‘power supply challenge.’ It has a national grid that has failed at least 222 times between 2010 and 2022, with a dozen more collapses recorded across 2024 and 2025 alone.
“What it actually represents is a market and an infrastructure base that has been allowed to decay for a generation, while successive administrations treated the grid as a line item rather than the strategic asset that determines whether Nigerian industry can compete at all,” he said.
He expressed concern that unreliable electricity supply had forced many manufacturing companies to abandon the national grid and invest heavily in alternative power generation.
According to him, more than 60 per cent of manufacturing firms have reportedly moved away from grid electricity, relying instead on diesel, petrol and captive gas generation to sustain their operations.
Adegbemle estimated that manufacturers spend over N45tn annually on alternative electricity generation, describing the expenditure as a significant financial burden that could otherwise support investment in electricity infrastructure.
“That exodus is not a footnote; it is the market’s verdict on grid reliability, delivered in the only currency that matters: capital allocation,” he stated.
The power sector advocate warned that the situation was weakening the financial sustainability of electricity market participants while increasing production costs for manufacturers already facing difficult operating conditions.
“This is not a utilities problem. It is a solvency problem for the entire electricity value chain and, by extension, a competitiveness problem for Nigerian industry,” he added.
Although he acknowledged reforms introduced through the Electricity Act 2023, Adegbemle maintained that legislative changes had yet to deliver the level of grid reliability required to support industrial growth.
He also questioned whether the newly announced Grid Asset Management Company would address fundamental commercial challenges, including inadequate gas supply, weak power purchase agreements and persistent liquidity problems within the electricity market.
Adegbemle cautioned that creating additional institutions without resolving these structural weaknesses could further complicate governance and accountability in the power sector.
Drawing lessons from South Africa and Egypt, he stressed that achieving reliable electricity supply required sustained reforms, transparent implementation and strong institutional leadership.
He urged the Federal Government to develop a comprehensive turnaround strategy capable of surviving changes in political leadership, while ensuring that investments in transmission infrastructure deliver measurable improvements in electricity reliability.
