Two weeks after the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, assured citizens of improved electricity supply, power generation in Nigeria remains below expectations, as ongoing gas shortages, load rejection, and infrastructure challenges continue to strain the national grid.
The CEO of the Association of Power Generation Companies (GenCos), Joy Ogaji, said the gas companies have told GenCos that they would no longer supply gas to thermal plants unless payments were made.
Although there have been slight gains, supply has largely stayed between 3,000 and 4,000 megawatts, leaving many households and businesses without electricity and raising doubts about the feasibility of the minister’s timeline.
Checks revealed that though marginal improvement had been reported in a few places, many Nigerians are still in darkness, hoping for a time when power would be restored in their areas. Power distribution companies (DisCos) have repeatedly apologised to their customers, pledging them reliefs that were not forthcoming.
Apologising for the erratic power supply two weeks ago at a press conference in Abuja, Adelabu had said: “I want to apologise to Nigerians, officially now, coming from me as the minister of power, for this temporary issue that is leading to hardship being experienced, especially during this dry season, where there is so much heat everywhere. Businesses are being affected, schools have been affected, and industries have been affected. It is not our wish to find ourselves in this situation, but it is due to some factors that are actually beyond our control”.
The Minister assured Nigerians that relief was imminent, giving a two-week timeline for improvement in supply. “I can tell you, with the committee that we have set up, commitments from gas suppliers, and the timeline for the repair of the gas pipelines, two weeks from now, we should start seeing improvements in supply. Two weeks!” Adelabu stressed.
However, as the 2-week timeline ended, it was observed that power supply is still not at the level it used to be in 2025. As of Wednesday morning, the 11 DisCos were struggling to distribute 3,500 megawatts (MWs) to their customers across the country. While this is an improvement compared to when the DisCos had to share 2,900MWs, many Nigerians said they have yet to feel the impact of the minister’s promise.
Real-time power generation has been hovering between 3,000MWs and 4,000MWs, a sharp drop from the over 5,000MWs recorded in 2025. It was also observed that the DisCos picked less than what was generated by the grid.
Recently, the GenCos accused the DisCos of deliberately rejecting electricity load allocations, resulting in heavy financial losses to the sector.
But operators in the power distribution arm of the business, who spoke in confidence due to the lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, said they were not to blame for load rejection. The operators said DisCos reject load due to an inefficient transmission system.
Recently, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) boasted that it had progressively expanded its wheeling capacity to a verified 8,700MWs. It queried whether distribution companies nominate power beyond the 4,000MWs to 5,000MWs range.
While the back and forth was going on, Nigerian homes and businesses were waiting for the government’s promise of a reliable power supply.
As the disagreements among generation, transmission, and distribution operators persist, the expected relief from improved electricity supply has yet to materialise for many Nigerians. With generation still fluctuating below previous levels and structural challenges unresolved, households and businesses remain uncertain about when the promised stability will be achieved.
