Central grid won’t get us anywhere, says Funmi Ogbue

Funmi Ogbue, Co-Founder of Zigma, has said that reliance on the central grid to improve Nigeria’s power sector will not yield significant developments.

According to her, the country can’t provide enough power capacity through the central grid to address Nigeria’s lack of energy access.

Ogbue made this known at BusinessDay’s CEO Forum 2024, which is themed “Leadership in the Economic Times.”

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Currently, more than 85 million Nigerians lack access to grid power, while many others face unreliable supply. These challenges force many Nigerian families and businesses to rely on expensive, emission-intensive gasoline and diesel backup generators

The country has also experienced incessant grid collapse in the first seven months of the year. For context, seven total grid collapses were recorded in 2024.

“We pivot and increase our credits to renewable energy. So we’re trying to develop new grids,” she said while talking about what Zigma is doing to bridge this gap.

According to her, that is the primary step in expanding the power sector. “So, we are looking at that space by contributing to the delivery.”