Power grid resilience key to energy security – FG

Nigeria’s power minister, Joseph Tegbe, has urged governments to treat electricity grids as a strategic security asset, rather than focusing energy security mainly on fuel supplies.

Speaking at the opening plenary of the Middle East Energy 2026 Leadership Summit in Dubai, Tegbe said the changing energy landscape required resilient power infrastructure. He argued that energy security now includes the reliability of the wider system, from critical-mineral supply chains and grid infrastructure to capital and institutions.

The minister said countries must be able to keep electricity flowing to homes, hospitals and industries during periods of geopolitical and economic stress. He also described affordability as a security issue and called for a global energy transition that is orderly, fair and responsive to the circumstances of individual countries.

Tegbe said Nigeria’s power reforms seek to create the certainty needed to attract investment. He pointed to regulatory certainty, respect for contracts and bankable offtake arrangements as essential conditions. He also cited Nigeria’s more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and its two-decade record of reliable liquefied natural gas supplies to Europe and Asia.

The minister described the Electricity Act 2023 as Nigeria’s most far-reaching power-sector reform in a generation. The law ended the Federal Government’s longstanding monopoly and created 37 emerging electricity markets across the federation. Tegbe said the reforms, implemented under President Bola Tinubu, could offer a model for other developing economies. “Capital does not flee risk; it flees uncertainty,” he said.

“

Capital does not flee risk; it flees uncertainty.