Former Kogi West senator Dino Melaye has raised concerns about Nigeria’s electricity sector, saying the country’s persistent power challenges stem from poor governance rather than purely technical shortcomings.
In a statement he posted on X, Melaye said that even though Nigeria has been producing electricity for more than a century, the country still has low power output and often faces power outages.
“Nigeria has been generating electricity since 1896. That’s 130 years. Today, in March 2026, the national grid just dropped to 3,940 megawatts. For 220 million people,” he said.
He looked at how Nigeria did compared to other African countries and pointed out big differences, noting that South Africa produces more than 48,000 megawatts of electricity to power 60 million people.
“Egypt has around 11,000 MW installed capacity for 110 million. Nigeria? About 13,000MW installed. On a good day, we can only move about 4,000 to 5,000MW through the grid. The rest just sits there. Wasted,” he added.
Melaye also mentioned that there have been many instances of the power grid failing and difficulties with the infrastructure in the sector.
“The grid collapsed 12 times in 2024 alone. In the same year, 128 transmission towers were damaged by vandals,” he said.
He said the government used N8.8 billion just to fix them, while further citing data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), highlighting ongoing instability.
“From 2010 up until 2022, NERC noted at least 222 instances where parts of the power grid either partially or completely stopped working. He said that’s about one every three weeks for 12 years in a row. He said that bringing key power plants back online after a collapse is very expensive. Every time the power grid fails, it costs Nigeria around $25 million to restart just three power plants: Azura, Delta, and Shiroro. That’s N42.5 billion. Per collapse. For just three plants,” he said.
Melaye also pointed to mounting debts in the power sector.
“As of February 2026, the power sector owes generation companies a total of N6.8 trillion. Growing by N200 billion every single month. By the end of March, it will reach N7 trillion.
“In 2023, 767 manufacturing companies shut down. 335 more became distressed. 18,000 jobs gone. In the first half of 2025, manufacturers spent N676.6 billion on backup power, but they still couldn’t cover all their needs. Another 18,935 jobs lost,” he said.
“The World Bank estimates economic losses caused by power outages. The World Bank says that power cuts in Nigeria cost the country about $29 billion each year. That’s about 10% of GDP. Every year,” he added.
