Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, has announced that Nigeria aims to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2024. Data shows that Nigeria’s power generation currently fluctuates between 4,000 and 4,500MW, serving approximately 200 million people. As of 6 am on Friday, reports indicate that the power generated stood at 4,553.82MW.
Speaking at the ministerial scorecard event to mark President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one year in office, Mr Adelabu highlighted a significant milestone: for the first time in three years, power generation in Nigeria rose to 5,000MW on May 3, 2024.
He expressed confidence that Nigeria’s power generation would reach 6,000MW before the year ends.
“On generation capacity, let me say that 5,000MW of power was achieved in May 2024 for the first time in three years. Precisely on May 3, 2024, we generated, transmitted and distributed 5,003.45MW of power.
“We all know where we were before now. But we rose to the occasion and changed the situation for the better, and our target is to achieve 6,000MW before the end of this year, which will be the first time in the history of Nigeria, and it will happen,” the minister stated.
He said there have been a series of infrastructural upgrades in the last year, pointing out that the ongoing Presidential Power Initiative was one of the programmes that ensured the improvement of power assets in Nigeria.
“In November 2023, President Tinubu and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz witnessed the signing of an accelerated performance agreement aimed at expediting the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative to improve electricity supply in Nigeria.
“The implementation of the pilot phase has resulted in infrastructure improvement which includes additional grid evacuation capacity by 2,230MW and an additional 183MW to be commissioned by the end of June 2024, Adelabu stated.
“There is also the rehabilitation of 15 brownfield substations with an expected contract date of August 2024. There is the construction of 22 green field substations with an expected contract date of October 2024,” he said.
Regarding the distribution of prepaid meters, Adelabu mentioned that the presidential metering initiative has been planned to cater to two million households annually for the next five years. This initiative aims to improve the sector’s liquidity and curb estimated billing.