In a move that has left many Nigerians seething, the Federal Government has earmarked a staggering N10 billion in the 2025 budget to install a solar-powered mini-grid at the Presidential Villa, suggesting it is walking away from the national electricity grid, per The Punch.
The plan, tucked inside the N57.1 billion proposed for the State House next year, covers the “solarization” of the Villa, including its main buildings in Abuja, the State House Medical Centre, and the former seat of government at Dodan Barracks in Lagos. According to internal projections, the project is expected to save the Villa up to N5 billion annually in electricity bills.
The decision has stirred a fresh conversation about Nigeria’s electricity challenge. While officials say the project is aimed at promoting clean energy, many believe it lays bare the growing crisis in Nigeria’s power sector — one that the government itself now appears eager to escape.
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The Villa’s pivot to solar isn’t happening in a vacuum. In February this year, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) publicly named the Presidential Villa among its top debtors, claiming the State House owed over N923 million in unpaid electricity bills. The presidency initially disputed the figure, but after a reconciliation process, it acknowledged a debt of N342 million, which President Bola Tinubu ordered paid immediately.
The scale of the Villa’s power consumption has since become a matter of national interest. According to GovSpend, a public finance tracking platform, the presidency spent more than N483 million on electricity in 2024 alone. A large chunk of that came from a lump-sum payment of N316.88 million in October, presumably to settle part of the backlog.
Meanwhile, the State House has continued to burn millions on diesel. In the three months following that payment, records show that over N88 million was spent on diesel alone — a signal that power from the national grid, even when paid for, isn’t always available.
Still, the move to spend N10 billion on solar power is raising serious questions, not just about the presidency’s energy choices, but about the message it sends to a nation whose power sector is already wobbling under the weight of high tariffs, low supply, and dwindling public trust. For ordinary Nigerians who are grappling with record-high electricity costs and epileptic supply, the question now is: if the Villa can’t cope with grid electricity, how are the rest of the country’s consumers supposed to survive?
The concern is more notable among Nigeria’s electricity consumers, who have faced exorbitant tariff increases over the last year. The most punishing of these came in April when the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved a new Band A tariff of N209.5 per kilowatt-hour, more than triple the previous rate of N68. Band A customers are meant to receive at least 20 hours of electricity daily. However, many of them still struggle with intermittent supply.
The Villa is classified under this premium band, and it’s no surprise the costs are stacking up. Last week, Lagos State’s Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, revealed that he was slapped with an N29 million electricity bill for a single month.
For many, the government’s decision to disconnect itself from the grid, even in the name of sustainability, confirms that the national electricity supply system is not only unreliable but unaffordable.
A Sector Focused on Revenue, Not Service
The discontent deepened earlier this month when the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, announced that the electricity sector had raked in N700 billion in revenue in 2024. While the government has touted the figure as a sign of improvement in the power sector, critics say it reveals a troubling shift in focus — from service delivery to aggressive revenue generation.
The solarization of the Presidential Villa, as extensive and strategic as it may seem, is not part of any clear national solar roadmap. There is no indication that the government plans to extend similar installations to schools, hospitals, or local government secretariats, many of which continue to operate without basic electricity.
The project itself is already running behind schedule. Construction of a 1.2MW solar facility at the State House Medical Centre was launched in October 2024, but by early 2025, no physical work had begun on solar infrastructure for the main Villa complex. Officials blame procurement delays, but critics suspect the project could be bogged down by bureaucratic inertia or even mismanagement.
The Villa’s move for solar energy underlines Nigeria’s current electricity situation, where individuals and businesses are increasingly seeing solar as an alternative to the country’s expensive – yet unstable power supply.