The federal government has begun a technical audit of Nigeria’s entire power infrastructure to ensure public funds are no longer directed at the wrong projects, Joseph Tegbe, Minister of Power, has said.
Speaking on energy security and investment, Tegbe said the audit, now about four weeks old, needs a few more weeks to finish.
“The intention is for us not to throw money at the wrong things,” he said. The exercise will show what the country has and what should be prioritised, letting government tackle generation, transmission and distribution problems in parallel.
The audit sits within a three-phase roadmap. The first phase, to stabilise the sector, began in June 2026 and runs to February 2027. The second, to scale, runs from March 2027 through 2028. The third, to transform, follows from 2028.
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Tegbe described the sector’s problems as present at every link of the value chain. Gas supply to plants is limited by low volumes, pipeline vandalism and weak commercial terms. The transmission network is overstretched, and he said a tower or major facility is brought down by vandals almost every fortnight.
In distribution, technical, commercial and collection losses run between 30 and 40 per cent.
The sector’s debt stood at N3.3 trillion, of which N1.23 trillion has been paid. Tegbe said the government is blocking new liabilities and is considering payment assurance mechanisms and legally permissible netting arrangements for eligible obligations.
The government will prioritise three energy corridors: Lagos-Ogun, Benin-Edo-Port Harcourt, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano. The Lagos-Ogun corridor, which Tegbe said accounts for 50 per cent of national energy demand, and the Abuja franchise area will serve as proofs of concept for the wider programme.
“We can’t address a 50-year problem overnight,” he said, adding that the focus is on areas with the most demand, where revenue will come from and where Nigerians will feel the change.
He stressed that the Federal Government would not act alone and would align national, state and private-sector initiatives. He said a four-hour meeting with the Lagos governor and leaders of the sector’s institutions had already mapped out a strategy for 24-hour supply in the corridor.
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Tegbe credited President Bola Tinubu with the political will to pursue reform, citing the Electricity Act 2023, which allows states to run their own electricity markets within a single national grid.
He also said the president had told him the Mambilla power project must be revived, with Lanre Babalola, special adviser to the president on power, and himself tasked to bring the 19 northern state governments on board.
On metering, he warned that collection would fail if electricity is not properly measured, and that this would starve the rest of the value chain. The government will train 5,000 young Nigerians to install and repair meters, with a target of 50,000. Babalola will lead the effort to cut technical and commercial losses.
Tegbe said the goal is to improve use of existing assets, support industrial productivity and strengthen investment across the sector.
Dipo Oladehinde is a skilled energy analyst with experience across Nigeria's energy sector alongside relevant know-how about Nigeria’s macro economy. He provides a blend of market intelligence, financial analysis, industry insight, micro and macro-level analysis of a wide range of local and international issues as well as informed technical rudiments for policy-making and private directions.
