The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to establishing a sustainable and financially viable power sector by emphasising the various reforms currently being implemented within the industry.
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, articulated this stance during the Mission 300 Stakeholders Engagement meeting held in Abuja, the capital of the nation. He underscored that this initiative is essential for the economic growth and overall development of Nigeria.
The Minister also announced that the estimated investment required for the Mission 300 Compact is $32.8 billion, with $15.5 billion expected from the private sector.
According to him, the Mission is to provide electricity to 300million unserved people in Africa.
He explained that the stakeholders meeting would provide an opportunity to align, strategise and build the partnerships needed to move from Nigeria Energy Compact to concrete results as he also called on development partners, the private sector, philanthropic actors, the public sector, and the civil society organisations to rally around this mission.
“Mobilising this level of financing will demand innovation, coordination, and a shared commitment.
“In this room today are many of the institutions and individuals who can help us shape the future of Nigeria’s energy sector. Let us take this opportunity to ask hard questions, identify the practical solutions, and develop actionable plans that will make universal access a reality not just in the policy space, but in the daily lives of our citizens by powering our hospitals, our schools, our industries, and our homes”, Adelabu said.
The official reviewed the government’s priorities concerning reforms in the power sector to address issues related to market liquidity and to initiate necessary sector reforms.
Adelabu underscored the significant outstanding debt owed to Power Generation Companies, resulting from unpaid government subsidies, which is approximately ₦4 trillion as of December 2024.
He stated that the Federal Government is actively developing strategies to mitigate this financial obligation and to ensure that additional liabilities do not accrue in the future.
He said that the Federal Government is already working out modalities to defray this obligation and to ensure that further obligations are not accrued going forward..
“The government is working on a plan to transition the sector to a fully cost-reflective regime while implementing targeted subsidies for the economically vulnerable citizens in the country.
“Improving our power generation through recovery of idle capacities and expanding energy mix to ensure energy security, and to dilute the power pool with cheaper and cleaner energy sources,” Adelabu said.
Other areas he identified included expanding transmission infrastructure to deliver more power, ensuring stability of the national grid to put an end to several grid disturbances and collapses previously observed on the grid, and to further strengthen the coordination and management of the national grid.
“Ensuring viability and performance improvement of the distribution segment of the power sector through strategic programs like the Presidential Metering Initiative and the World Bank-funded Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP)” he mentioned
The Minister further stated that the Power Ministry is pursuing increased renewable energy through its rural electrification and energy transition drive, to provide a reliable power supply to unserved and underserved communities.
Through its training institute, the Ministry is also working to improve human capital and local content development in the sector to reduce import dependence, stimulate jobs, and build a homegrown energy industry.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership President of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is fully committed to this vision and through the Federal Ministry of Power, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, we will continue to champion reforms, promote innovation, and partner with all stakeholders to deliver a sustainable energy future,” Adelabu stated.
According to Adelabu, in January 2025 at the Dar es Salaam Africa Energy Summit, President Tinubu joined eleven other African Heads of State in endorsing the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration and formally committing the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Mission 300.
“We presented our National Energy Compact, a bold statement of intent and ambition to fast-track access to both electricity and clean cooking for all Nigerians to achieve universal access by 2030 by increasing the rate of electricity access from 4 percent to 9 percent per annum and raising access to clean cooking from 22 percent to 25 percent per annum”, he said.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, who spoke through Zoom from Brazil also said that the reforms the government was undertaking in the power sector were critical towards unlocking the full potential of the economy as it would lead to job creation. He said the reforms have led to an over 40 per cent increase in power distribution in the first quarter of 2025.
Present at the meeting were the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Geoffrey Nnaji, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, the World Bank Officers, the head of agencies in the Power Ministry, and partners in the sector.