Blackouts: Group urges urgent national grid overhaul

PowerUp Nigeria, an advocacy group, is calling for an urgent overhaul of the national electricity grid, warning that continuous blackouts are severely damaging the Nigerian economy and undermining industrial competitiveness. The group highlighted that manufacturers are increasingly disconnecting from the national grid due to unreliability, opting for costly self-generation.

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Let’s dispense with the euphemisms. Nigeria does not have a ‘power supply challenge.’ It has a national grid that has failed at least 222 times between 2010 and 2022, with a dozen more collapses recorded across 2024 and 2025 alone.

Adetayo Adegbemle, Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, stated that the country's electricity crisis stems not just from inadequate supply but from the persistent collapse of the national grid, which has failed numerous times between 2010 and 2022, with additional collapses recorded in 2024 and 2025. He criticized the government's historical approach, describing the grid as a neglected asset rather than a strategic component for industrial growth.

Adegbemle noted that over 60 percent of manufacturing firms have left the national grid for captive generation. These companies collectively spend upwards of N45 trillion annually on diesel, petrol, and captive gas generation. This expenditure, he argued, could have funded necessary transmission and stability upgrades for the grid. The exodus of manufacturers is seen as a market verdict on the grid's unreliability, impacting the financial viability of the entire electricity value chain and Nigeria's overall economic losses.

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That exodus is not a footnote; it is the market’s verdict on grid reliability, delivered in the only currency that matters: capital allocation. Manufacturers now spend upward of N45tn annually on diesel, petrol and captive gas generation, money that, redirected into the grid, could have funded the very transmission and stability upgrades the sector needs.

While acknowledging reforms under the Electricity Act 2023, Adegbemle expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of adding new agencies, such as the Grid Asset Management Company, without addressing fundamental commercial failures. These include non-bankable power purchase agreements, chronic gas supply shortages, and a broken liquidity chain within the sector. PowerUp Nigeria insists that these underlying issues must be resolved to ensure a stable and competitive electricity market.

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This is not a utilities problem. It is a solvency problem for the entire electricity value chain and, by extension, a competitiveness problem for Nigerian industry.