As Nigeria Grapples with Widespread Power Outages

With successive administrations’ culture of blame game on the sorry state of power supply to homes and businesses in Nigeria, Festus Akanbi argues that the current regime will not be able to make any significant success in its quest to revamp the power sector and tackle the perennial outage if it does not take decisive steps to settle issues of legacy debts, vandalism, cost-reflective tariff and the problem of inadequate gas supply

There are no two ways to describe the current performance of the power sector in Nigeria. This is perhaps the worst experience in recent times.

With the blackout spreading to virtually all parts of the country, observers said it is a big indictment on the Federal Ministry of Power which is gaining the notoriety of giving excuses in place of power supply to Nigerians after nine months of being in the saddle.

The current power outage in Nigeria has caused immense anguish among its citizens. Nigerians are grappling with the inconvenience of living without electricity, which affects nearly every aspect of daily life. From the inability to refrigerate food to disruptions in businesses and healthcare services, the power outage exacerbates existing challenges faced by many Nigerians. 

The frustration stems from the recurring nature of power outages despite promises of improvement from authorities. The situation highlights the urgent need for systemic reforms and investments in Nigeria’s energy infrastructure to provide consistent and reliable electricity to its people.

 In its state of nervousness over the growing complaints from Nigerians, the federal government last week, gleefully announced that it had summoned the leadership of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) to explain the worsening power supply in their franchise areas, covering 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, who summoned the Chief Executives of AEDC and IBEDC because supply has been exceptionally bad in those regions also issued marching orders, asking the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to withdraw licences of non-performing electricity distribution companies, DISCOs.

This is even as power generation dropped year-on-year (YoY) by 21 per cent to 3,475MW in March 2024, from 4,404MW in the corresponding period of 2023, due to many problems, especially low investment and inadequate gas supply.

But, on month-on-month (MoM) to 3,475mw in March 2024, from 4,043MW in February 2024, thus causing many Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to embark on loading.

The government accused the DisCos of not doing enough to improve supply despite the availability of power on the national grid.

Adelabu who stated this during a meeting with the head of the agencies in Abuja, said the distribution segment remains the weakest link in the electricity supply value chain.

Adelabu stressed that NERC must look for creative ways of getting the DISCOs to improve supply including the imposition of stiff sanctions on utilities which fail to pick their allocations and outright cancellation of licences.

Mounting Legacy Debts

In his explanation, the Minister of Power blamed the unfortunate situation on issues like the legacy debts to the power generating companies.

“Today, we owe a total of N1.3 trillion to the power generating companies, out of which 60 per cent is owed to gas suppliers.

“Now, if you add N2 trillion legacy debt owed to gas companies and the N1.3 trillion being owed to GenCos, we have an inherited debt of over N3 trillion in this sector. How will the sector move forward? Nigerians deserve the right to know this.”

Implementation of Cost-reflective Tariff 

Apart from the burden of debts, analysts explained that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is in a mess currently because the call for the implementation of cost reflective tariff is yet to be adopted.

The reality is that Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people still depends on just 4,000mw of electricity supply to power their homes and businesses.

Operators complained that the expansion of infrastructure in the sector has been hampered by the fact that despite having invested over N3trillion, the absence of a cost-reflective tariff has prevented them from recouping their investment and discouraged them from committing more resources. 

With such constraints, although the total national installed generation capacity stands at 13,000MW, Nigeria barely manages to get a third of that to where power is needed. The rest is stranded.

Thus, what this means is that there’s a misalignment of the entire value chain from gas to consumers. Without cost-reflective tariffs, the federal government has been forced to subsidise the real cost of electricity.

Low Allocation of Gas

Reports said the various gas-fired grids in the country were not getting enough gas supply, leading to low allocation to electricity distribution companies. 

Early this year, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company told its customers that it was not getting enough allocation from generation due to gas shortages and other related issues. 

“Kindly be informed that the present reduction in power supply across our network is due to gas shortages and other related issues arising from the generating companies,” the EKEDC said in a post on its social media handles recently. 

Replying to outcries from its customers, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company recently said Discos was not getting enough allocation to serve them. 

“If we get the supply, we have to give it out. If we don’t get it, we cannot give it. Electricity is to our benefit. If we give you a 24-hour supply, you will pay us our money. It is an allocation issue. Discos are not getting enough allocation,” the company said. 

Vandalism

One other factor militating against regular power supply is the issue of vandalism of power assets. 

Unfortunately, vandalism of power assets has become unrelenting in Nigeria. Reports stated that vandals recently destroyed two transmission towers, Tower T372 and T373 along Kaisata village, which supplies electricity to parts of the North-east, thereby adversely disrupting the power supply in Borno and Yobe states.

Between January and June 2022, reports recorded the vandalism of several transmission towers and lines including in Oku-Iboku, Akwa Ibom State, 330KV Sapele to Benin transmission lines, 132KV Enugu to Benue transmission line, 330KV Osogbo to Akure, 132KV Papalanto/Ojere double circuit transmission line in Abeokuta, causing power outages.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company stated that it lost over N1.2 billion of its assets and electrical installations to vandalism and cable theft in 2022. This has led to several outages and the death of innocent residents.

Recently, there was an incident of power asset vandalism in the Federal Capital Territory, which plunged Abuja and its surrounding areas into darkness. 

Also, the TCN said Tower 70 along its 330KV Gwagwalada-Katampe transmission line was freshly vandalised recently, leading to the loss of bulk power supply and volume of power into Abuja by 250 megawatts. A similar incident occurred in the Gwarimpa-Katampe area in December. There should be constant patrols of critical national assets to check vandalism in the country.

Among other issues, the Discos have not metered over 50 per cent of their customers more than 10 years after privatisation. 

Despite privatisation, the government has intervened repeatedly in the energy sector to the tune of N7 trillion between 2015 and 2023. Consumers, including ministries, departments, and agencies are owing billions of naira in electricity bills. The sole national grid collapsed again on February 4; it suffered the same fate thrice in 2023.

Observers noted that some of the problems enunciated above are not new as successive administrations have always been raising issues of vandalism, and lack of adequate gas among others. The question then is why has it been difficult to address these issues which will give Nigerians the opportunity to enjoy an uninterrupted power supply. For how long will the current leadership at the power ministry continue to give excuses for the failure to justify their positions?

Given the place of power in the nation’s development, the federal government should as a matter of urgency wade into the crisis, having identified some of the issues plaguing the sector.

The federal government cannot be mouthing lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty without taking the power sector very seriously. All over the developed economies, efficient electricity drives both the MSMEs and the big manufacturing sector

Nigerians are tired of excuses, this is the time for the minister and his team to roll their sleeves and hit the ground running.