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By Faheem Lawal
The federal government has unveiled a comprehensive plan to reset Nigeria’s electricity sector, targeting a stronger national grid, improved power supply, universal metering and renewed investor confidence.
Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this on Friday at a national media roundtable on the resetting of the power sector, saying the administration’s priority was to make electricity more available, reliable and financially sustainable.
Tegbe said the reset was not an admission that previous reforms had failed, but an effort to build on the reforms initiated by President Bola Tinubu while tackling structural weaknesses that had held back the sector.
He said, “Our objective is clear. To make electricity more available, make the grid more reliable, make the market financially sustainable and restore investor confidence.”
According to him, Nigeria’s power sector has moved from policy discussions to practical implementation, particularly with the implementation of the Electricity Act, which allows states to develop electricity markets suited to their economic realities.
The minister said the government was also tackling the sector’s long-running liquidity crisis through the Power Sector Bond initiative, designed to address legacy debts owed to generating companies, gas suppliers and other market participants.
He said resolving the financial crisis was critical to restoring confidence, attracting fresh investment and enforcing commercial discipline across the electricity market.
Tegbe also placed metering at the heart of the reform, noting that estimated billing had fuelled distrust between electricity providers and consumers for decades.
He said the Presidential Metering Initiative was aimed at achieving universal metering so that consumers would have greater transparency and pay only for electricity actually consumed.
The Ministry, he added, had inaugurated the Power Force, involving 5,000 Nigerian youths in nationwide meter installation while creating a skilled manpower pool for the sector.
He further disclosed that the government had made progress in resolving longstanding challenges around meter procurement.
On generation, Tegbe said the country had consistently generated about 5,000 megawatts over the preceding two weeks, attributing the improvement to better operational coordination, improved plant availability and stronger engagement across the electricity value chain.
However, he stressed that generation alone could not solve Nigeria’s electricity crisis, as power must be generated, transmitted, distributed and paid for.
As part of the reset, the ministry will conduct a comprehensive technical audit of the national transmission network to identify ageing assets, overloaded substations, weak corridors, protection failures and other bottlenecks.
It will also harmonise federal and state electricity regulation in collaboration with NERC and state regulatory commissions to prevent jurisdictional conflicts under the Electricity Act.
The government will commence strategic investments in three key transmission corridors—Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano—as part of its Grid Stabilisation Programme.
Tegbe said the government would also tackle sector liquidity by reducing technical and commercial losses, modernising infrastructure and accelerating smart-meter deployment.
Other measures include strategic asset centralisation, linking under-utilised electricity assets to industrial clusters and manufacturing hubs, as well as the Super Grid Programme to strengthen the transmission backbone, improve redundancy and support higher power transfers.
The minister said visible improvements in electricity availability were expected within months, while within two to three years Nigerians should see a stronger grid, lower technical losses, improved market discipline, greater investment and expanded electricity access.
Tegbe also dismissed concerns over an imminent electricity tariff increase, declaring that “there is no policy by this administration to increase electricity tariffs beyond its current level.”
He said the immediate focus was service improvement, universal metering and ensuring consumers paid only for electricity consumed, while the government would continue exploring measures to protect vulnerable consumers.
“Resetting the sector is not about buzz words. It is about execution, discipline, coordination, measurable outcomes,” Tegbe said, stressing that the success of the reforms would ultimately be judged by improvements in Nigerians’ daily lives.
