Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Stakeholders in the power sector yesterday agreed that despite reforms in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the sector has continued to struggle, barely able to take half of total capacity to Nigerian homes.

Delivering his lecture at the 29th edition of the October Lecture Series of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in Abuja, a former President of the Society, Tasiu Gidari-Wudil, maintained that Nigeria’s electricity sector remains far from achieving the goals set out in the 2005 reform law, despite nearly two decades of policy changes and privatisation.

Gidari-Wudil’s paper was titled: ‘Total Challenges Facing Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa: The Transformation of Our Power Sector’. The paper examined the reforms between 2005 and 2023, highlighting the gains, setbacks, and lessons for future policy.

He noted that Nigeria’s installed capacity grew from 6,000 megawatts in 2005 to over 13,000 megawatts by 2023, but average generation remained below 50 per cent of capacity due to gas shortages, transmission bottlenecks, and inefficiencies across the value chain. 

According to him, persistent infrastructural gaps, financial unsustainability, and consumer dissatisfaction continue to undermine progress in the sector.

“Reform is a long-term process requiring sustained commitment beyond political cycles,” he said, adding that strong regulatory institutions, transparent tariffs, and meaningful stakeholder engagement are crucial if Nigeria hopes to meet its power needs.

In an interview after the lecture, Gidari-Wudil stressed that progress has been slow and far below expectations. He blamed political interference, regulatory weaknesses, and government failures as key setbacks.

“It’s not as significant as envisaged by the crafters of the policy in 2000 and the law in 2005. By now, according to the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, we should have been far beyond 30,000 megawatts.

“The initial buyers of the utilities were given service-level agreements, but the government failed to deliver on its part. The companies also failed, leading to market shortfalls now running into trillions of naira,” he explained.

The engineer also pointed to deep-rooted issues within distribution companies, including collusion by staff in illegal connections and meter bypassing. “If the distribution companies look inward and fix their internal leakages, especially collection failures, a lot will change,” he added.

Earlier in her welcome address, the President of the NSE, Margaret Oguntala, said the lecture coincided with Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary, a time for reflection and renewed hope.

“As engineers, we believe these are not abstract problems. They are real, technical and solvable challenges and we must rise to the occasion. Governments at all levels must more deliberately engage Nigerian engineers to proffer practical, scalable and homegrown solutions,” she said. 

She noted that the October Lecture Series was designed to articulate the Society’s position on critical national issues, promote engineering’s visibility in national discourse, and highlight the expertise of past presidents of the NSE. 

Also speaking, Sahara Power Group’s Group Managing Director, Kola Adesina, represented by the company’s Head of Generation, Godwin Emmanuel, noted that while the sector had recorded gains since 2005, including growth in installed generation to over 13,000MW, expansion of transmission capacity, and improved governance frameworks, actual supply to the grid still averaged below 5,000MW, far short of national demand.

“These realities remind us that while reform has set the stage and delivered measurable progress, much work remains to translate capacity into reliable supply,” he said.

He outlined three priorities for the next phase of reforms, which are: Cost-reflective tariffs to ensure liquidity and sustainability, grid modernisation to strengthen reliability, and accelerated integration of renewables into Nigeria’s energy mix.

“The power sector remains both Nigeria’s greatest challenge and its greatest opportunity. If we get power right, every other sector from agriculture to digital services will flourish,” Adesina added.

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