Nigeria’s electricity regulatory framework is inching toward a potential collapse, as political appointments, delayed executive actions and deepening governance gaps threaten to incapacitate the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) without the legal capacity to function, WALIAT MUSA writes.
For more than two decades, the NERC has rarely been led by individuals with extensive grounding in electricity regulation. The government, over the years, has consistently prioritised political loyalty over technical competence. This development undermines the legislated strength of institutions and weakens their ability to enforce regulations.
Recently, when President Bola Tinubu nominated Abdullahi Garba Ramat, a former local government chairman in Kano state, stakeholders in the power sector returned to the regular call for technically sound minds to head NERC, essentially given the current crisis the power sector is facing.
Since 2005, NERC chairmen have frequently entered office without industry expertise, relying heavily on senior civil servants and inherited management structures to interpret complex market rules. While this approach has long been criticised, stakeholders said the new nomination marks an even sharper departure from global standards, where utility regulators are typically drawn from engineering, energy economics or legal experts with decades of sector experience.
The current controversy is not merely about the nominee but about the executive’s long-standing failure to build a leadership pipeline within the Commission.
Instead of promoting career professionals with institutional knowledge, successive administrations have opted for politically convenient candidates, a pattern many now argue is unsustainable.
The urgency of the situation is heightened by an impending leadership vacuum.
On December 1, 2025, the tenures of the current Chairman, Vice Chairman and at least one commissioner will expire. Under the Electricity Act 2023, NERC cannot operate with an acting chairman if both the Chairman and Vice Chairman positions are vacant. The law also mandates that commissioners be appointed and confirmed before the expiration of existing tenures, as the Act does not provide for interim extensions.
This creates the real possibility that the Commission could find itself without the minimum quorum required to legally sit, sign orders or issue regulatory directives. Key functions such as tariff reviews, market settlements, licensing decisions, metering enforcement and oversight of distribution companies (DisCos) could grind to a halt.
Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, Adetayo Adegbemle, warned that the prolonged delay in confirming a substantive chairman is already harming confidence in the sector.
“We still don’t know whether the nominee will be approved or not. This level of uncertainty does not bode well for the health of the power sector,” he said.
Section 35 of the Electricity Act 2023 stipulates that NERC must maintain at least five sitting commissioners, with appointments reflecting the six geopolitical zones and meeting specific professional requirements in law, engineering, economics, energy policy or consumer protection. Several commissioners, including those overseeing finance, legal compliance, engineering and planning, are due to complete their tenures between December 2025 and February 2026.
If replacements are not appointed early enough, the Commission may fall below its legal quorum.
Consumer advocates are also raising alarms as the National Coordinator of the All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, cautions that a drop in the number of commissioners below the statutory minimum would compromise the Commission’s institutional integrity and effectively stall all regulatory action.
The crisis is further complicated by long-standing regional imbalances. Since its creation, NERC has only been chaired by individuals from the North West, South South and South East.
The South West, North East and North Central have never produced a chairman, a pattern stakeholders say undermines NERC’s legitimacy and fuels perceptions of geopolitical exclusion.
Analysts, however, warn that ignoring these regions again in current appointments may intensify political tensions and weaken national consensus around electricity reforms at a time when the sector requires broad trust.
The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is heavily dependent on NERC’s periodic decisions, from tariff adjustments and market settlements to licensing of generating plants and oversight of metering frameworks. Any regulatory paralysis would immediately spread across the industry.
Investors monitoring the sector also require a steady and predictable regulatory environment. A leadership vacuum, especially one created by non-compliance with statutory provisions, could trigger a freeze in capital inflows and delay ongoing projects tied to the Electricity Act’s decentralisation reforms.
The analysts describe the situation as “an avoidable collapse,” warning that a shutdown at NERC would deepen liquidity challenges, weaken consumer protection mechanisms, disrupt the Multi-Year Tariff Order, and complicate the operations of DisCos already struggling with technical and commercial losses.
They, however, insisted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must act urgently to prevent an institutional breakdown. They recommended the immediate appointment and confirmation of a competent, merit-based NERC leadership with verifiable regulatory or power-sector expertise.
They urged the President to ensure geopolitical balance in appointments in line with the Electricity Act to restore public trust, institutional legitimacy and timely reappointment or replacement of outgoing commissioners to avoid falling below the legal quorum.
The President is also urged to strengthen internal capacity by promoting seasoned regulatory professionals into strategic leadership roles, noting that without swift action, Nigeria risks plunging into a regulatory blackout at a moment the country is attempting to stabilise tariffs, expand generation capacity and enforce service-based reforms.
