By Anene Umennaka

Consumers regularly experience darkness over the perennial grid collapse. The erstwhile number two citizen Prof. Yemi Osibanjo in a ministerial performance review in justifying tariff increment by NERC was quoted to have said: “The other painful adjustment we have had to make in recent days is a review of electricity tariff regime. The recent service-based tariff adjustment by the Discos has been a source of concern to many of us. Let me say frankly, that like many Nigerians, I have been very unhappy about the quality of service given by the Discos. That is why we have directed that tariff adjustments be made only based on guaranteed improvement in servia.”

It is usually a ding-dong affair between NERC on the one part; and Civil Society Organisation (CSO) and Labour on the other part, anytime the former increases the tariffs. The latter insists on improves service before increments, while International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank pile pressures on the government to remove subsidy. During the 2020 increments while the government justified the upward adjustment of tariffs contending that 45 per cent of Nigerians segmented into Band A – E are enjoying between 13 to 24hours of electricity, even the World Bank insisted 78 per cent of power consumers in Nigeria get less than 12 hours of supply. The increment was to meet liquidity challenges including an improvement in the provision of service. Consumers were no longer going to purchase cables, transformers, electric poles and other basic needs that should be the responsibility of the service providers – the Discos.

There were other increments in January 2022 and May 2024. While NERC defended the Discos for 2022 increments saying the adjustments were inevitable due to foreign exchange difficulties, inflation and insecurity in certain parts of the country which had prevented Discos from collecting their revenue; that of May 2024 affected only BAND A customer – a 250 per cent increment, from N68 per kilowatt hour spiraling to N225 kilowatt (KW)!

Most stakeholders are irked that the Discos and Gencos have not improved service still they keep on increasing the tariff. The mass Metering Programme did not also progress. 5,132,994 customers out of the 12,457,068 active electricity consumers are unmetered, NERC reported in its March and April 2026 metering status.

In March 2022, 14 power plant failed due to lack of gas and other issues. While power generating companies apportioned the blame on the government for not meeting its financial duty to them totaling N1.6 trillion then, the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc claimed Gencos were paid. On the other hand Discos are blaming Transmission Company of Nigeria for running antiquated equipments leading to frequent collapse. Consumers continued to bear the pains of the sector. They cannot fathom the reason behind the tariff increases. According to the consumer rights advocates, the power sector is waxing, on the sweat of the consumers. Consumers have continued to provide electricity transformers, poles, wires and other necessaries for their use, while ownership changes instantly to the privately owned distribution companies. Where is the fairness! However, NERC on 26th day of October, 2024 asked consumers to report Discos that still allow consumers to provide poles, transformers, etc.

This leads us to ask what the regulatory body NERC is doing to address these inefficiencies? Experts have said that until NERC addresses the obvious loopholes in the electricity network. Consumers would likely experience tariffs increase without commensurate increase in power supply. These weaknesses have been aggravated by policy laxity and regulatory environments. NERC however in April, 2024 fined Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Plc for applying the latest tariff to all bands instead of Band A only and also ordered it to reimburse the affected customers. Despite the lapses, investors are demanding cost-reflective tariffs, while international financial institutions are insisting that the government should remove subsidy. On July 31, 2026, Tegbe, announced that electricity tariffs will be totally removed in 2027 but in phases.

A former chairman of NERC, Dr Sam Amadi earlier mentioned, was reported by the press to have summed it up saying that there would only be service improvement when Nigeria “has a more efficient policy, effective regulatory environment, and interventions!” This agrees, with what Yemi Oke, a professor of energy law said that, tariff increases would never address challenges in the power sector until “fundamental issues” are tackled. Monica Maduekwe, a sustainable energy expert is also on the same page with Amadi and Oke, that tariff increases would not solve Nigeria’s electricity problem. Speaking during a media interaction in May, 2025, she added that if tariffs increase was the panacea to Nigeria’s electricity crisis “it would have abated with the successive price hikes” in the past. She pinpointed the stumbling block to be “interference from entrenched interests whose agendas are misaligned with the goal of reliable electricity for all Nigerians.”

Power supply to the network has been very dismal leading to decreased hours of supply to all bands of tariff. Yet, tariff the same. Of course, consumers have to resort to self-generation, and price of diesel has skyrocketed. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) continually laments that alternative energy adds 40 percent to the cost of goods, making their goods uncompetitive to cheaper imports. MAN further said that 300 businesses have consequently shut down. World Bank says Nigerian businesses suffered a combined annual loss of $29 billion because of unreliable power.

In view of all these hiccups in the power sector, particularly with regard to Gencos and Discos, some consumers and consumer rights advocates have called for a reversal of the privatisation. That reversal, remained the only feasible alternative, due to their persistence poor performance. In the words of Dr Owhoko in a recent article: “until the Discos are dissolved and replaced with technically competent investors who are ready to invest heavily in distribution equipment and facilities, homes and industries will continue to suffer from poor electricity supply…Let the Discos die, so that Nigeria can have light.”

But energy experts rather prefer that the Federal Government should be stricter and firmer with the non-performing Gencos and Discos. They said that performances agreement that led to the privatisation must be fulfilled by all. Further, that NERC and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) need to be empowered by law to remove non-performing Gencos and Discos. That reversal of privatisation will be more expensive in time and resources.
Discos appear still to be blaming their predicaments on foreign exchange volatility, continued security threats in various part of the country like bombing of parts of the transmission network in the northern states. That Discos experience cable vandalism and theft nationwide. That, these factors all combined to affect Discos best effort at providing electricity. These same economic and security concerns affect customers as well. So government is urged to provide the needed or conducive environment for all.

In the twilight of his regime, the Muhammadu Buhari–led Federal Government had proposed a renewable energy plan (REMAP) that would generate 178,000MW in its efforts to transform energy supply in the country over the next 27years. Nigeria has, as stated in the beginning, has one of the highest energy deficit in the world. Renewal energy generation in the country is 1,000MW as at present. The then minister of power said that Nigeria is therefore looking for investors to raise $1.22 trillion to shift its energy sources to renewables! The objective of the gigantic plan was directed at ending energy impoverishment, tackle climate change and assist Nigeria in achieving Paris Agreement projections as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Renewable energy are expected to generate 42 per cent of all electricity globally, despite many obstacles.

But experts are all agreed that the plan was too ambitious and unrealistic, and therefore likely to fail.

They called for a clear and implementable plan. That the country should start small. Gradually, with improvement, it will keep on increasing. They experts seem to be saying that Rome was not built in a day.

That the focus now should be in checkmating the nepotism and corruption that constitute stumbling blocks to gradual progress in the power sector. They harped on attitudinal change, sincerity and eschewing of selfish interest for national interest. The experts underscored the fact that the country usually does not lack good plans but implementation. They emphasized the need for “effectiveness, efficiency and ethics in the public sector as catalyst of a lasting business environment”.

Despite the criticisms above, the last regime seemed bent on scouting for the investors to raise $1.22 trillion to transit from fossil to renewable energy. The plan as earlier stated was directed at ending energy impoverishment, tackle climate change and assist Nigeria in achieving Paris Agreement Projections, as well as the sustainable development goals. This is the position of the United Nations and developed countries. But fossil fuels advocates in the country favour using existing resources, particularly gas to power industries and homes, instead of importing renewable energy products, which comes at exorbitant if not, unaffordable costs to developing countries.

The then Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who passed on 2024, seemed to have favoured a marriage of the two (fossil and renewable energy), when responding to an interview he said that the country has an abundance of crude oil, fossil fuels, and variants of renewable energy (solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass), in commercial quantities, and a good mix of all these would greatly improve the energy supply in the country.

But stakeholders at the International Energy Agency (IRENA) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation insist that REMap is the country’s “best pathway to sustainable energy after years of elusive energy policies and implementation”. IRENA underscored the urgency to use renewable energy sources in Nigeria noting that REMap would aid socio-economic recovery and development, while abating climate change and adaptation strategies. They finally enthused that renewable-based transition could be a powerful force for positive change.

United Nations and Climate change advocates have again called on all countries to treble to triplicate their energy investment and assist weaker nations in order to save the planet. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General underscored that subsidies must shift from fossil fuels to clean and affordable energy: “The price of renewable technologies can be seven times higher in developing countries. We must all work together to reduce the capital cost for renewables and ensure that financing flow to those who need it most”.

With the exist of Buhari regime and the entry of Tinubu government, which is now in its terminal year the administration has voted in favour of renewable energy, while suing for a just energy transmission. Abba Aliyu, the Managing Director of Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in late May, 2025 at the launch of the Next Generation Renewal Energy Service Company (RESCO) programme in Abuja disclosed that the Federal Government is resolute to transform its energy deficit. That $410 billion is required by the present administration for Nigeria’s energy transition plan and $40 billion to close the gap. He revealed further that Nigeria has clinched $750 million in public-sector renewable energy funding. The REA Chief Executive announced that $200 million and $700 million in co-financing and separate arrangement were respectively being negotiated. The sum total of all these facilities is $1 billion to realise renewable energy.

Straight from the horse’s mouth, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a just energy transition, from fossil fuels, to renewable, so as not to jeopardise developing economies. Speaking through the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu on Friday, July 4, 2025 at the 17th Summit of the Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO), ‘New ECO Vision for a Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Future’ in Khankhendi, Azerbaijan, he therefore called for “the ECO members partnership to expand access to cleaner energy technologies, share technical expertise, and invest in regional power pools to bring electricity to communities currently without it.”

The new Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, promised revival of the 450 megawatt (MW) Alao Open Cycle Power Plant in Abia State shut down for 3 years. The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) restored the facility, with up to 375Mw now available for dispatch to the national grid.

Also in Lagos, as The Guardian, in one of its recent editorials observed and I concur (except): “The recent signing of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by Lagos State Government with three Independent Power Project (IPP) firms is ….a milestone. If Lagos State Government executes this PPA with the transparency and urgency it deserves, it will do more than just light up streetlight and factories, the era of the megawatt mirage would end.”

As Nigeria implements its Energy Transition Plan (ETP), the country cannot progress without reliable and constant power. Unemployment rate is now at 40 per cent. We need power in our household to live a better quality of lives. We need power for numerous SME’s and industries to survive. “A sufficient and constant supply of electricity is indispensable for the economic development of industrialised countries” IFO Institute (Germany).

Prof. Aremu, an energy expert put it more succinctly when he said, “even God when He was about to start creation said ‘let there be light’, which means there cannot be productivity without light”. With households groaning and businesses crumbling, it is hoped that with the deregulation of the power sector, and the consequent birth of the new Electricity Act, 2023, all states governments, companies and individuals will take advantage of the new Act to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity efficiently. Then, it would really be for Nigeria’s residents, the beginning of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Read the remaining part of this article on www.guardian.ng

Umennaka, a lawyer, is President, Friends of the Sick International, an NGO.