The Federal Government has paid N1.23tn out of the estimated N3.3tn in accumulated legacy liabilities in Nigeria’s power sector, as it intensifies efforts to address financial constraints, stabilise the national electricity grid and expand transmission infrastructure.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this at the opening of the Nigeria Energy Leadership Summit and Exhibition 2026, held at the Landmark Centre, Lagos, where he outlined measures to improve electricity supply, strengthen the financial sustainability of the sector and attract fresh investment.
Tegbe said the government was also working to prevent the accumulation of new liabilities by addressing financial leakages and improving operational efficiency across the electricity value chain.
The minister stressed that the country’s power-sector reforms must move beyond policy formulation to deliver measurable improvements in electricity supply, grid stability and market performance.
He identified gas supply constraints, overstretched transmission infrastructure, distribution losses and accumulated financial obligations as major challenges undermining the performance of the sector.
According to him, addressing these challenges requires coordinated action across generation, transmission and distribution to ensure that investments translate into more reliable electricity for households, businesses and industries.
The summit, themed “Strengthening Power Delivery Through Execution, Coordination and Performance,” brought together energy companies, technology providers and other industry stakeholders to examine solutions to Nigeria’s electricity challenges and explore investment opportunities across the power and wider energy value chain.
As part of the government’s strategy to improve electricity delivery, Tegbe identified four priority areas: enhancing energy zones, strengthening sector liquidity and sustainability, optimising existing assets, and expanding infrastructure to accommodate future demand.
He said the government was prioritising practical interventions that would improve the utilisation of existing power infrastructure while addressing bottlenecks preventing electricity from reaching consumers.
The minister also outlined three priority economic energy corridors: Lagos–Ogun, Benin–Enugu–Port Harcourt, and Abuja–Kaduna–Kano.
The corridors are intended to align power generation, transmission infrastructure, distribution capacity and identifiable electricity demand, with the aim of improving supply reliability and supporting industrial and commercial activities.
The Lagos–Ogun corridor, for instance, serves a major concentration of manufacturing and commercial activities, while the Benin–Enugu–Port Harcourt and Abuja–Kaduna–Kano corridors cover important industrial, commercial and population centres.
Tegbe said the corridor-based approach would help coordinate investments across the electricity value chain and ensure that infrastructure development responds to the needs of businesses and other electricity consumers.
He noted that expanding transmission capacity alone would not resolve the sector’s challenges without corresponding improvements in generation, gas supply and distribution infrastructure.
Nigeria’s electricity market continues to face structural constraints, including inadequate transmission capacity, distribution losses, liquidity challenges and gas supply limitations, which have contributed to persistent supply disruptions and increased operating costs for businesses.
To address some of these problems, the minister highlighted the continued implementation of the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DSRP) and the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF).
The initiatives are designed to improve metering coverage, reduce electricity losses, strengthen distribution companies’ operations and support more efficient revenue collection across the power market.
Improved metering is particularly important to reducing commercial losses and disputes over estimated billing, while more efficient revenue collection could help strengthen the financial position of distribution companies and improve their capacity to meet obligations to other market participants.
Tegbe said the government was also focused on optimising existing power-sector assets to improve performance and maximise the value of infrastructure already deployed.
He added that additional investment would be required to expand transmission and distribution networks, accommodate future electricity demand and support economic activities across the country.
The minister emphasised that the ultimate objective of the reforms was to translate policy measures and infrastructure investments into tangible economic benefits, including stronger industrial productivity, business expansion, increased investment and job creation.
He said the reforms, which align with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, must be assessed by their impact on electricity supply, operational efficiency and the long-term sustainability of the power market.
The payment of N1.23tn towards the estimated N3.3tn in legacy liabilities represents a significant financial intervention in a sector where accumulated obligations have remained a major concern for market participants.
However, the government still has approximately N2.07tn of the stated legacy liabilities to address, based on the figures disclosed by the minister.
The government’s efforts to prevent fresh liabilities from accumulating will also be important to sustaining the impact of the payments and improving financial discipline across the electricity market.
The Nigeria Energy Leadership Summit and Exhibition 2026, which runs from October 27 to 29, provides a platform for energy companies, technology providers, investors and policymakers to discuss practical measures for improving power delivery and strengthening the country’s wider energy sector.
