Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has acknowledged that many Nigerians are still without reliable electricity, despite recent improvements in power generation and transmission.
Tegbe made the admission in Abuja on Monday while presenting his scorecard for his first 100 days in office.
The minister said he understood the frustration of Nigerians who continue to experience unstable electricity supply, noting that higher national generation figures had yet to translate into dependable power for every community.
According to Tegbe, electricity generation and transmission had risen above 5,000 megawatts in recent weeks, compared with between 3,700MW and 4,700MW before June.
He said the sector recorded a peak generation of 5,330MW between August and September following government interventions to restore damaged infrastructure and improve the performance of existing power plants.
However, Tegbe acknowledged that the improvement at the generation level had not yet been fully felt by electricity consumers.
“Our next task is to sustain these gains and translate them into more dependable supply at customer level,” he said.
The minister highlighted the restoration of the 375MW Alaoji open-cycle power plant, which had been out of operation for three years, as one of the interventions undertaken since he assumed office.
He also said new transformers installed in Apapa, Ijora, Alausa and Lekki had unlocked 672MW of transmission capacity, while a new transformer at Katampe, Abuja, added another 240MW.
Tegbe said the government would now focus on strengthening transmission infrastructure, improving distribution, expanding metering and addressing challenges including electricity theft, vandalism and the financial difficulties affecting the power sector.
He also ruled out an immediate increase in electricity tariffs, saying the government’s priority was to improve service delivery and make existing investments translate into more reliable electricity for Nigerians.
The minister’s remarks come amid continued public concerns over prolonged outages and the gap between improvements recorded on the national grid and the actual electricity supply experienced by households and businesses across the country.
