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• Minister says N1.23trn of N3.3trn electricity debt settled
By Beifoh Osewele
The Federal Government has announced plans to commence the replacement of ageing infrastructure across the national electricity grid within the next one to two months, targeting January 2027, as it disclosed that N1.23 trillion of the N3.3 trillion owed to electricity generation companies had been settled.
Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, who disclosed this during a television interview yesterday, said the replacement programme would follow an ongoing technical audit of the power sector, which had identified defects in transmission towers, insulators and other critical components responsible for frequent disruptions in electricity supply.
He said some transmission lines had been in operation for as long as 50 years, making urgent rehabilitation and replacement necessary to improve grid stability and electricity delivery across the country.
“So in the next one or two months, we will commence infrastructure replacement across our grid. President Tinubu is extremely supportive of what we are doing.”
Tegbe explained that the government had embarked on a comprehensive assessment of electricity infrastructure to identify facilities requiring urgent attention and prevent the waste of resources on repairs that would not address the underlying problems. “I’m a systems person. So do a technical audit of the entire power sector. And today, we’ve gone about one month into the technical audit. We’ve seen some of the results.”
According to him, the exercise had uncovered defects in different components of the transmission network, making it necessary to determine the precise nature of the problems before deploying resources.
“There are places where it is towers that have issues. There are places where it’s insulators. There are places where it’s a conductor relay.
“What you don’t want to do is start spending money on insulators when you are meant to fix a conductor relay. Now we’re getting a clear picture,” he said.
The minister also disclosed that the Federal Government had paid N1.23 trillion out of approximately N3.3 trillion owed to electricity generation companies, leaving an outstanding balance of about N2 trillion, which it hoped to settle in 2027.
“In the last few months, we’ve paid down N1.23 trillion. We only have N2 trillion left. That N2 trillion, hopefully next year,” he said.
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Tegbe identified liquidity constraints in the gas supply chain as another major obstacle to electricity generation, explaining that although Nigeria had substantial gas reserves, some generating companies were unable to obtain sufficient supplies because of outstanding financial obligations.
“We have gas as a nation. However, sometimes, that liquidity issue becomes a constraint. There’s availability of gas for us as a nation. It’s a comparative advantage. However, within the gas supply chain, there are constraints.”
He explained that the inability of some generating companies to pay for gas had contributed to electricity shortages, notwithstanding the country’s substantial gas reserves.
The minister’s explanation followed conflicting positions by agencies in the power sector over the recent decline in electricity generation.
On November 5, the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) attributed reduced generation partly to limited gas availability and declining water inflows into hydroelectric stations, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited maintained on November 7 that its gas transportation network had no operational constraints responsible for the decline.
Reacting to the differing explanations, Tegbe said the ministry’s priority was to coordinate the relevant agencies and address the technical, financial and operational challenges affecting electricity supply rather than allow disagreements to distract from efforts to improve the situation.
He also identified ageing power plants as a major constraint, disclosing that the government was taking steps to replace obsolete generation equipment with newer facilities to improve output.
The minister said the government was pursuing a four-pronged strategy covering improved sector liquidity and sustainability, optimisation of existing generation and transmission assets, development of energy zones and expansion of critical infrastructure.
He disclosed that plans were also being considered for dedicated transmission connections to industrial clusters, including a proposed link between Alaoji and the Agbara industrial area, to improve electricity availability for manufacturing operations.
According to him, better connections between available generation capacity and industrial demand would reduce manufacturers’ dependence on expensive self-generation, lower production costs and improve industrial competitiveness.
Tegbe maintained that sustainable electricity supply would require simultaneous interventions in generation, transmission, gas supply and financial obligations across the power sector.
