…Efforts ongoing to stabilise national grid
Nigeria’s diesel generator era is ending for manufacturers as reforms unlock embedded generation and renewables, Joseph Tegbe, Power Minister, said on Wednesday.
In his keynote address at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Renewable Energy Outlook Conference 2026 , Tegbe told manufacturers that the era of the diesel generator as their primary power source is drawing to a close.
He noted that the Presidential Power Initiative, in partnership with Siemens, is upgrading transmission infrastructure to reliably deliver up to 7,000 megawatts of power to industry.
The minister described the move as a direct intervention to alleviate the transmission bottleneck that has historically frustrated generation capacity.
He said that the government is also accelerating metering across the sector, eliminating the estimated billing disputes that undermine trust between distributors and their industrial customers.
According to him, the Electricity Act 2023 now legally enables mini-grids, renewable procurement deals and direct connections to independent power producers. “The competitive advantage belongs to those who act first,” he said.
The minister said Nigeria’s power paradox is costing industry billions of naira annually. Africa’s most populous nation has over 13,000 megawatts of installed capacity, yet less than half reaches consumers reliably, forcing manufacturers to run an “invisible shadow grid” of diesel and petrol generators.
Tegbe called the fuel cost a “structural tax on Nigerian competitiveness that we can no longer afford to pay” after grid collapses in late 2025 and early 2026 plunged Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt into darkness.
Reforms are already shifting the sector, Tegbe said. President Bola Tinubu signed the Electricity Act 2023 within 10 days of taking office in May 2023, removing power from the Exclusive Legislative List and letting 20 states enact subnational electricity laws.
The government has added 8,500 megavolt-amperes of transformer capacity since 2024 and attracted over $2 billion in new private investment, while the Energy Transition Plan targets 277 gigawatts of mostly renewable capacity by 2060 with projected fuel savings of $121 billion, the minister added.
“No nation has industrialised without first solving its energy equation,” the minister said. “Nigeria’s industrial ambition must be powered by reliable, affordable, and clean electricity — or it shall remain largely aspirational,” he added. The minister also noted that efforts are ongoing to stabilize the national grid.
In his opening remarks, Leye Kupoluyi, LCCI president, says the gathering was convened for “one of the most pressing development imperatives facing our nation today.”
The theme, ‘Powering Nigeria’s Energy Transition: Policy, Investment, and Industrial-Scale Deployment,’ he said, reflects the urgent need to align Nigeria’s energy future with industrial growth.
Kupoluyi said unreliable power continues to weigh on productivity and costs. “Energy is the foundation upon which modern economies are built.”
“Sadly, Nigeria continues to face significant challenges in energy access and reliability that constrain productivity, increase operating costs, and limit business growth across sectors. He noted that for many enterprises, “energy costs have become a major component of operating expenses.”
Kupoluyi said renewables offer more than backup power. “Beyond addressing electricity deficits, renewable energy offers a pathway to energy security, economic diversification, and industrial development,” he said.
The chamber, he added, sees the transition as both environmental and economic: “Renewable energy is both an environmental and an economic agenda.”
Abba Abubakar Aliyu, managing director and CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency, in his address, said globally energy systems are being redesigned at an extraordinary speed, adding that renewable power capacity is expanding faster than at any point in history.
According to him, for too long, renewable energy in Nigeria has been framed largely as an access solution — important for rural homes, schools, and clinics, but somehow separate from the mainstream industrial economy. That framing is now outdated.
“Mini-grids, embedded generation, interconnected mini-grids, solar-plus-storage systems, and distributed energy resources must now be understood as industrial infrastructure.”
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