Electricity consumers across Nigeria may face worsening power supply disruptions following a sharp decline in electricity generation nationwide.
Data obtained from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) showed that power generation fell to 3,527.76 megawatts (MW) yesterday, representing a drop of 877.28MW or 19.92 per cent from the 4,405.04MW recorded the previous day.
The development has heightened concerns among households and businesses already grappling with unstable electricity supply.
Industry stakeholders warned that unless urgent measures are taken to address persistent gas supply shortages and aging transmission infrastructure, efforts to revive the nation’s power sector may remain ineffective.
Experts have continued to attribute the sector’s poor performance to policy inconsistency, weak regulation, corruption, inadequate investment, and lack of political will.
Speaking on the development, energy economist, Prof. Wumi Iledare, said the sector is not only underperforming but also trapped in a deep financial crisis.
According to him, over N4 trillion in legacy debt continues to weigh heavily on the entire electricity value chain, leaving generation companies unpaid, gas suppliers constrained, distribution companies struggling, and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) overstretched.
“The interventions introduced so far, including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) support, guarantees, and subsidies, have merely addressed liquidity symptoms while ignoring the sector’s structural deficiencies,” he said.
Iledare stressed that the industry would remain practically insolvent unless Nigeria adopts cost-reflective tariffs with targeted subsidies, enforces market discipline, and strengthens governance structures.
“We cannot fix a structurally broken market with temporary cash injections,” he added.
Also commenting, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, described the power sector as one of the most difficult areas of Nigeria’s economic reform agenda.
Despite several reform initiatives over the years, Yusuf noted that the industry continues to struggle with deep-rooted structural, financial, and governance challenges.
“These challenges cut across political economy constraints, tariff distortions, weak investor capacity, transmission bottlenecks, and a persistent liquidity crisis across the value chain,” he said.
He added that the inability to implement a fully cost-reflective tariff regime, largely due to political and social concerns amid recent economic reforms, has sustained subsidy dependence and widened the sector’s financing gap.
“As a result, government intervention has become unavoidable in the short term to prevent system collapse and sustain electricity supply,” Yusuf stated.