Former Minister of Power and Chairman of Geometric Energy, Professor Barth Nnaji, has emphasized that Nigeria needs at least 100,000 megawatts of electricity to adequately meet its rising energy demands.
Speaking during an interview on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Friday, Nnaji highlighted the stark inadequacy of the country’s current energy generation and transmission infrastructure. He pointed out that the existing system falls far short of the capacity needed to support industrial expansion, stimulate economic development, and provide sufficient power for Nigeria’s rapidly increasing population.
According to him, significant investments and structural reforms are essential if the country is to close the gap between energy supply and demand and unlock its full economic potential.
“As we are now, the transmission infrastructure is simply not going to be able to carry the required power in the nation. We need at least 100,000MW of power here to be available, not just merely installed, to be able to serve this country.
“The growth of power in Nigeria is critical because the amount of power that we have installed is not anywhere comparable to what we should have for the nation,” he said.
Speaking on the state of electricity infrastructure and the new Federal Government’s National Integrated Electricity Policy, Nnaji said the success of the initiative hinged on aggressively expanding generation capacity, upgrading transmission infrastructure, and ensuring cost-reflective tariffs to sustain investment and reduce the financial burden on the government.
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He called for pragmatic implementation of the policy, emphasising that while its framework remained promising, its success was tied to effective execution and strategic investments in power generation, transmission, and distribution.
Nnaji noted that while the policy was promising on paper, the real challenge lay in the implementation.
He warned that for Nigeria to enjoy stable electricity, it must adopt a pricing system that is both affordable and cost-reflective.
“If we want to have electricity, it must be paid for, there is no place where electricity comes free in the world. But it must be affordable, that is, it must be cost-reflective.
He stated that the Federal Government was struggling to manage the situation of acquiring power from GenCos, while the DisCos were unable to meet their payment obligations, resulting in a debt of about N4 trillion for the government—an unsustainable burden caused by non-reflective tariffs.
Regarding the proposed ban on solar panel imports to promote local manufacturing, Nnaji expressed doubt about the country’s readiness for such a move. He acknowledged that the idea of producing goods for domestic use was commendable but questioned whether the nation currently had the capacity to manufacture solar panels at the necessary scale. He suggested that a transition period would be needed and argued that although local production should be supported, implementing a sudden ban could have negative consequences.