The Federal Government has set a target of expanding electricity access to more than 80 per cent of Nigerians within the next five years, as part of a broader plan to overhaul the country’s troubled power sector and close the gap between installed and available generation capacity.
Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed the plan while presenting a paper titled, “Industrialisation and Regional Competitiveness: The Role of Power,” at an event organised by the Nigeria Economic Summit Group in Lagos.
Tegbe, whose presentation was delivered by his Special Adviser, Martins Olajide, said the government also planned to close the gap between Nigeria’s installed generation capacity and actual available power within three years.
He said the government would also work towards reducing Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses to below 17 per cent within the same period.
“Over 80 per cent access, ATC&C losses below 17 per cent, the capacity gap closed – Nigerian industry gets the reliable, affordable power it needs to compete for AfCFTA’s 1.4 billion consumers,” Tegbe said.
The minister said the plan was central to the Federal Government’s efforts to improve the competitiveness of Nigerian industries and support President Bola Tinubu’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
“President Bola Tinubu has been absolutely clear about the economic direction of this administration – to transform Nigeria into a one trillion-dollar economy – and electricity sits at the heart of that ambition,” he said.
Tegbe said Nigeria had an installed grid capacity of 13,625 megawatts but average available power stood at only about 4,854MW, leaving a significant portion of the country’s generation capacity unavailable.
He added that the country’s realistic peak electricity demand was estimated at about 20,000MW, underscoring the magnitude of the power deficit confronting businesses and households.
The minister said the government had commenced efforts to strengthen critical transmission corridors across Lagos, Enugu–Port Harcourt and Abuja–Kaduna–Kano.
He said the government was also rolling out seven million electricity meters, training 5,000 people and developing captive economic clusters to connect industries directly to reliable power sources.
“The plan is in motion: transmission corridors through Lagos, Enugu–Port Harcourt and Abuja–Kaduna–Kano are being strengthened, seven million meters are rolling out, training of 5,000 recently commenced, and captive economic clusters are linking power directly to industry,” he said.
The Minister of Power said the Federal Government was also pursuing an independent electricity market with reduced government intervention, improved liquidity and measures to address recurring debts and operational losses in the sector.
Tegbe said inadequate and unreliable electricity supply remained one of the biggest obstacles to industrialisation, forcing businesses to depend heavily on self-generated power.
“4,500 to 5,000MW average available for 200m+ people. Twenty-six grid collapses in 2024. Energy is 30 to 40 per cent of factory cost,” he said.
According to figures cited in the presentation, Nigerians spent an estimated N16.5 trillion on self-generation in 2023, compared with about N1 trillion in grid revenue.
The presentation also referenced a World Bank estimate that unreliable electricity supply costs the Nigerian economy about $25 billion annually, representing between five and seven per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Research and Economic Policy Division of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Dr Oluwasegun Osidipe, said inadequate energy supply remained the leading challenge confronting manufacturers.
Osidipe, who spoke during a panel session at the summit, cited the Q2 2026 Manufacturers’ CEO Confidence Index, which ranked inadequate energy supply as the foremost among 10 major constraints facing the manufacturing sector.
He said manufacturers had been compelled to invest heavily in alternative power generation because of unreliable electricity supply, increasing their cost of production and weakening their ability to compete.
The MAN research director also identified regulatory bottlenecks, multiple agencies, overlapping requirements, foreign exchange pressures and Nigeria’s dependence on imported machinery, spare parts and strategic raw materials as major challenges.
He said poor coordination between monetary and fiscal policies was also affecting manufacturers.
Osidipe warned that unless the government addressed the cost and reliability of electricity alongside other structural challenges, Nigerian manufacturers would continue to struggle to compete effectively in local and international markets.