Many Nigerians marked this year’s Christmas amid widespread power outages following a nationwide drop in electricity supply.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), which manages the national grid, attributed the decline in power generation to an explosion on the Escravos–Lagos Gas Pipeline in Delta State. The pipeline is operated by the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company (NGPTC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
In an update released late Wednesday, NISO said electricity supply would return to normal “soon,” noting that repair work on the damaged pipeline was nearing completion. However, power outages persisted across most parts of the country on Christmas Day.
The situation has once again highlighted the long-standing challenges facing Nigeria’s power sector, more than a decade after its privatization in November 2013.
According to data released by NISO on Wednesday, the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) collectively received 3,272 megawatts from the national grid for distribution to over 250 million Nigerians. The shortfall has forced Discos to resort to load shedding and prolonged outages across their coverage areas.
Nigeria’s available electricity supply has largely stagnated between 3,000 and 5,000 megawatts over the past 12 years, despite repeated reform efforts. In 2024, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, pledged that the country would achieve a generation target of 6,000 megawatts by the end of December 2025.
Reacting to the development, the National President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Kunle Olubiyo, said systemic failures before and after privatization have continued to undermine the sector.
“You cannot build something on nothing. If the processes and systems are not properly structured, the fallout is what we are witnessing today. We did not get it right, beitherbefore aorafter the privatization of the power sector,” Olubiyo said.
