The federal government has named three power corridors as the starting point of its plan to fix Nigeria’s electricity supply, arguing that a 50-year problem cannot be solved nationwide in one stroke.
Joseph Tegbe, Minister of Power, said on Tuesday that corridors such as the Lagos-Ogun, Benin-Edo-Port Harcourt, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano will receive concentrated attention before the government applies the lessons to the rest of the country.
‘We don’t fix the power problem in six months or two,’ Tegbe said at Nigeria’s energy week on Tuesday. He said the government would start where demand is highest, where revenue can be collected and where Nigerians are most likely to feel the change. Nigerian Banking Launch
The plan runs in three stages. The first, ‘stabilise,’ began in June 2026 and runs to February 2027. ‘Scale’ follows from March 2027 through 2028, and ‘transform’ runs from 2028 onwards. Tegbe described the phases as interdependent, with measurable milestones attached.
Lagos-Ogun and the Abuja franchise area will serve as proofs of concept for the national programme. The Lagos-Ogun corridor alone accounts for about half of national electricity demand, he said. The minister added that the Federal Government will not go it alone and will work with state governments and private operators.
He said he held a four-hour meeting with the Lagos State governor on a 24-hour power supply strategy for the corridor. Leaders of the national power sector institutions attended, as did the Special Adviser to the President on Power, Lanre Babalola.
Before money is committed, the government is auditing the country’s power infrastructure. Tegbe said the exercise is four weeks old and needs a few more weeks to finish. ‘The intention is for us not to throw money at the wrong things,’ he said. The findings will determine where generation, transmission or distribution gets priority, and allow interventions to run in parallel.
Tegbe described the problems along the chain. Gas supply to power plants is limited by low volumes, pipeline vandalism and weak commercial terms. The transmission network is overstretched. Vandals pull down a tower or other major installation roughly every fortnight. In distribution, combined technical, commercial and collection losses run between 30 and 40 percent.
The power sector’s accumulated debt stood at N3.3 trillion, of which about N1.23 trillion has been paid, Tegbe said. The government is now trying to stop new liabilities from building up. Options include payment assurance mechanisms and legally permissible netting arrangements for eligible obligations.
The minister also credited President Bola Tinubu with the Electricity Act 2023, which he called the most far-reaching reform of the sector this century.
He said it allows states to run their own electricity markets within a single national power system. It was not meant to create 37 separate systems, he stressed. He also pointed to the Siemens-backed Presidential Power Initiative, which he said opens room for private companies and takes pressure off the central government. Read Economics
Tegbe said the President told him the Mambilla power project must be fixed. The Federal Government plans to bring the 19 northern state governments into the effort. https://businessday.ng/energy/article/fg-maps-three-power-corridors-to-revive-nigerias-electricity-supply/