Kawu Musa Idris-Idah, October 2025
To fully grasp Nigeria’s energy poverty problem, revisiting history is important. Reflection prevents us from making the same mistakes.
A 2025 World Bank report states that about 80 million Nigerians lack access to electricity. A 2022 BusinessDay online survey showed that only 2 out of 10 Nigerians had more than 10 hours of electricity daily. Extrapolating to present day – tariffs are higher and grids collapses are more regular, 2 out 10 may still be apt. 2 out 10 is more probable than 5 out of 10. Educated guesses are the best way around the data scarcity we experience. It is highly likely that more than hundred million Nigerians don’t have more than 10 hours of electricity daily. Strong evidence exists suggesting that for every unit increase in electricity supply, unemployment reduces. Unfortunately, the exact correlation between electricity increase and unemployment reduction is yet to be defined. Maybe Artificial Intelligence will rescue us. Nevertheless, case-in-point: more electricity, more jobs.
The EPSRA was set to be the pin that would burst the balloon of epileptic electricity in Nigeria. A balloon that had grown over decades. By 2005, less than 25% of electricity generation facilities in Nigeria were functional. The functional ones would generate lesser than 2000 MW daily. Although, total name capacity was about 6,000 MW. Between 1990 and 2005, no new national electrical infrastructure was commissioned. The electricity authority, National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), was also the mafia of unaccountability. It hadn’t ever published audited financial statements. With about 40,000 employees, what an audited statement would reveal. Best to not publish.
Post-military handover in 1999, an electric power reform implementation committee was setup by the National Council on Privatization. It’s resulting memo led to a National Electric Power Policy in 2001 and the Federal Executive Council approved the policy’s implementation. The policy recommended: an electricity sector regulator, privatization of the electric sector and institutional reforms that would enable a viable electricity market.
In 2005, the legislative arm of the government passed the EPSRA 2005. The act’s content: unbundle NEPA into distinct generation, transmission and distribution components, develop the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), initiate the handover of NEPA’s assets, liabilities and staff to a temporary entity called the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). The PHCN would then handover to the succeeding generation, transmission and distribution companies. In Q4 2005, eighteen (six generation companies, one transmission company and eleven distribution companies) successor companies were officially incorporated. In Q3 2006, PHCN transferred all its assets, liabilities and staff to these succeeding companies. NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Limited) and NELMCO (National Electricity Liability Management Company) were incorporated to conduct bulk trading and manage liabilities. EPSRA’s vision – a gradual transition towards a viable electricity market where electricity supply by private players meets Nigeria’s demand.
Have we made progress since 2005? Has the electricity supply-demand gap narrowed?
In 2025, Nigeria’s installed generation capacity is believed to be about 14,000 MW – more than double the installed capacity in 2005. Albeit this increase, only a maximum of 5,000 MW can be transmitted to Nigerians through the national grid. Anything above and the grid would fail.
The EPSRA was repealed in 2023, by a new law called the Electricity Act. This Act’s vision – empower states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity without relying on federal efforts.
Lookout for our future reflections!