The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has identified vandalism of critical power transmission infrastructure as a significant barrier to achieving the target of 6,000 megawatts of electricity generation by December 2024.
He noted that while the government had taken steps to meet this goal, repeated attacks on electricity towers have derailed progress.
The was disclosed by the Special Adviser on Strategic Communication and Media Relations to the Minister, Bolaji Tunji, on Sunday, according to The Punch.
Nigeria’s power generation currently ranges between 4,000 MW and 4,900 MW, sourced from 19 power plants.
This output serves the country’s population of around 200 million people, highlighting the significant gap between energy demand and supply.
Earlier this year, Adelabu pledged to achieve 6,000 MW of power generation by the end of 2024, citing progress in the sector.
However, the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s electricity grid, along with the vandalism of transmission towers, has disrupted power supply stability and impeded efforts to reach the target.
In November, the special adviser expressed optimism about reaching the 6,000 MW target, noting that about 1,000 MW had been added since the current administration took office. Despite this progress, challenges like grid collapses and vandalism continue to hinder further advancements in power generation.
He said, “If you look at the situation when the current administration took over, the generation was just about 4,000 megawatts. However, within a year, about 1,000 megawatts were added. By November 27, we again reached a target of 5,231 megawatts. Indeed, a promise of 6,000 megawatts was made, and with what we were doing, we felt it was achievable. Unfortunately, the work of vandals set us back a bit. We are not resting on our oars to ensure additional supply to the grid.”
As of November 2024, the Transmission Company of Nigeria stated that it had spent N8.8bn to repair and restore 128 vandalised transmission towers across the country.
He highlighted another critical issue in the power sector: insufficient cash backing for subsidy payments. While N450 billion was budgeted for the current year, the debt incurred for subsidy payments has risen to N2.3 trillion, exacerbating financial challenges in the sector.
Bolaji said, “One of the key issues has been the cash backing of the subsidy, which relates to debt owed to generation companies and gas companies. This year’s subsidy will be approximately N2.3tn, but only N450bn was budgeted.
“Another issue has been the fragility of the transmission grid due to the level of vandalism.”
