Electricity: Nigeria settles 1,230 billion naira in arrears
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vanguard
The federal government has already paid 1,230 billion naira of the 3,300 billion approved by President Bola Tinubu to repay old debts owed to electricity producers. Electricity Minister Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe also said that more than 2.8 million customers had been fitted with meters between 2023 and October 2026, according to Vanguard.
Nigerian Minister of Electricity Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe said the federal government has paid 1,230 billion naira of the 3,300 billion approved by President Bola Tinubu to clear old, verified debts owed to electricity producers. He was speaking on Friday at an interactive lunch with editors-in-chief in Lagos, according to Vanguard.
The minister also said more than 2.8 million customers have been fitted with meters between 2023 and October 2026, as part of the presidential metering programme. On the transmission side, recently commissioned substations have added more than 1,300 megavolt-amperes (MVA) to national capacity, across nine localities, including Apapa, Ijora and Ikeja. He acknowledges Nigerians' frustration with unreliable electricity supply, which he attributes to gas shortages, ageing infrastructure, vandalism, limits of the transmission network and insufficient metering.
The government is building a new national grid control centre in Osogbo, to replace a facility more than 60 years old, and is aiming for 10,000 megawatts of generation capacity. It has identified the Lagos-Ogun, Benin-Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano corridors as priority energy zones. The Lagos-Ogun axis and the Abuja franchise zone, which together account for more than 50% of national demand, are proposed as pilot sites for 24-hour energy zones, subject to technical readiness and commercial viability.
These 1,300 MVA are part of a wider effort. The country also announces 15,000 MVA added to the electricity grid in three years.
