Nigeria must urgently scale its power infrastructure to at least 100,000 megawatts of installed capacity if it hopes to meet current and future energy demands, former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, has said.
Nnaji made the declaration during an interview on The Morning Show on Arise TV, stressing that the country’s installed power capacity falls woefully short of what is needed to support a growing population and a struggling industrial base. According to him, unless Nigeria moves with speed to make deliberate, large-scale investments in power generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, the country will remain trapped in its cycle of persistent load shedding and unreliable electricity.
“We need at least 100,000 megawatts of power—not just available capacity, but installed capacity—to support our development goals,” Nnaji said.
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He indicated that Nigeria needs to generate power aggressively, improve its infrastructure, and have a deliberate, coherent policy that supports both traditional and renewable energy sources.
His comments come at a time when fresh data from the NESG-Stanbic IBTC Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) for May 2025 paints a bleak picture of Nigeria’s business environment, highlighting electricity supply as the top constraint faced by firms operating across the country. The report underscores a frustrating continuity: structural bottlenecks, especially in the power sector, continue to choke productivity, stall investment, and erode confidence in the private sector.
The BCM findings reflect a common experience for businesses across Nigeria, which consistently cite poor electricity supply, logistics challenges, policy inconsistency, and macroeconomic instability as barriers to growth. But power shortages, in particular, remain the most frequently mentioned concern, more than inflation, interest rates, or currency volatility.
Infrastructure, Not Just Policy
While welcoming the recent approval of the National Integrated Electricity Policy (NIEP) by the Federal Government, Prof. Nnaji warned that policy frameworks will yield little if not matched by real infrastructure investment.
He pointed to the urgent need for Distribution Companies (Discos) to modernize and expand their networks.
“Discos must invest in substations to ensure efficient power delivery. Without such infrastructure, no matter how much you generate, people won’t get the power. And we’ll continue load shedding,” he said.
Referencing the experience in Aba, where 90 substations were developed to improve local power delivery, Nnaji argued that localized efforts with tangible infrastructure upgrades could serve as a model for other parts of the country.
He proposed that some of the large Discos, whose operations span up to five states, should be broken into smaller regional entities or franchises.
Solar Ban Not A Good Move
In addition to concerns about existing bottlenecks, Nnaji addressed the government’s controversial move to restrict or ban solar panel imports, raising alarm over the lack of capacity in Nigeria to produce solar panels at scale.
He expressed support for domestic production in principle, but warned that imposing a ban without a phased transition plan would create more harm than good.
He echoed the warnings from Dr. Muda Yusuf, CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), who similarly in April warned that such a move would stifle access to clean energy and frustrate rural electrification efforts.
Nnaji also urged the Federal Government to strategically utilize Nigeria’s abundant natural gas reserves to power thermal plants.
He noted that while solar energy has a critical role to play, wind energy may not be viable in most parts of Nigeria due to geographic limitations.
The combination of gas, hydro, and solar—with carefully phased industrial policies and regulatory clarity—could, he said, pave the way for a more stable and modern energy sector.
Financial Discipline Needed in Discos
Another key issue Nnaji raised was the need to restore financial credibility to the power value chain, particularly at the distribution level. He explained that unless Discos become financially stable and pay generating companies (Gencos) for the electricity they receive, investors will remain reluctant to enter the generation segment.
The NESG-Stanbic IBTC BCM report adds quantitative context to these concerns. The index shows that business optimism remains subdued, with power outages and high operating costs frequently cited as major deterrents to expansion. Manufacturers and service providers say they spend an increasing portion of their revenue on diesel and alternative power sources.
Several businesses surveyed reported being unable to operate at full capacity for more than 12 hours per day due to blackouts and unstable grid supply.
The recently approved National Integrated Electricity Policy (NIEP) is billed as a turning point for the power sector. It aims to streamline regulatory oversight, encourage private capital, and close gaps in generation, transmission, and distribution.
But analysts note that without simultaneous reform of sector financing, enforcement of performance-based contracts for Discos, and fast-tracked infrastructure projects, the NIEP could join the long list of policy blueprints that falter at the implementation stage.
Nnaji, who was instrumental in the initial push for power sector privatization over a decade ago, believes Nigeria must not waste any more time.