By David Onuoja, Abuja
When Chief Joseph Tegbe, mounted the podium to account for his first 100 days as Minister of Power, he did not promise a miracle. Instead, he quoted Steve Maraboli: “An inch of improvement is better than a mile of intentions.”
It was a deliberate framing for a ministry where expectations are measured in megawatts and disappointment in blackouts. For a sector long defined by a cruel paradox, Tegbe’s message was simple: stop announcing intentions and start moving equipment, money and electrons.
That paradox is familiar to anyone who has followed Nigeria’s power story. Critical transmission equipment purchased with scarce foreign exchange has remained stranded in ports and warehouses, even as transmission projects across the country remain unfinished and communities continue to wait for reliable electricity.
One of the first steps under Tegbe has therefore been to unblock the pipeline. Releasing critical network equipment for deployment is intended to help upgrade transmission infrastructure and address the contradiction of unfinished projects existing alongside equipment lying idle in storage.
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It may sound like an unglamorous administrative intervention, but it could prove consequential. For a ministry struggling with a backlog of stalled projects, moving equipment from storage to the field is the kind of practical action that can have a more immediate effect on grid performance than announcing another contract.
Tegbe’s strategy rests on three broad pillars: stabilisation, finance, and governance and investment. Together, they represent an attempt to address not only the physical weaknesses of the electricity system but also the financial and institutional problems that have kept the sector fragile.
The first pillar is stabilisation — fixing the backbone.
The approach is not simply to pursue additional generation at all costs. Rather, it is to strengthen the existing grid so that it can carry more of the electricity already being generated.
The work is being focused on three critical corridors that are central to national electricity supply: Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano. Technical audits have commenced along the Lagos and Abuja corridors to identify weak points, protection failures and control gaps.
The objective, according to the Minister, is to move away from blanket investments and concentrate resources on verified interventions capable of producing measurable improvements.
But stabilisation, in Tegbe’s strategy, extends beyond the national grid. It also involves diversifying access to electricity, particularly for communities and institutions beyond the reach of conventional grid infrastructure.
“Through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and its partners, we are reaching people beyond the existing grid,” he said.
The numbers presented from the REA portfolio are substantial. During the first 100 days, the completed electrification portfolio included 62 solar and mini-grid installations across 30 states, representing about 43.6MW of installed solar capacity and 41,735 new connections, with an estimated beneficiary reach of more than 208,000 people.
The portfolio brings together four major programmes: the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) Project, the Africa Mini-Grids Programme, the Interconnected Mini-Grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS), and institutional electrification.
These are not merely pilot projects. They represent practical additions to electricity access. The commissioning of a 3MW solar hybrid system at Yakubu Gowon University, Abuja, for instance, provides power to more than 50,000 students and staff and forms part of a broader effort to electrify educational institutions.
The wider portfolio includes a 20MW off-grid initiative in Kogi, a 3.5MW solar project in Kebbi, a 5.5MW mini-grid in Epe, Lagos, and an Adamawa constellation of 39 mini-grids designed to provide nearly 27MW for 40,000 households, 6,000 small businesses and more than 100 public institutions.
Yet building renewable assets is only one part of the challenge. Keeping them operational is another.
To address the sustainability problem that has undermined several donor-funded renewable projects, the Ministry has launched the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO).
RAMCO is expected to professionally manage publicly financed renewable energy assets by contracting competent operators responsible for metering, billing, payment collection and maintenance.
With a mandate to raise N3 trillion over the coming years, the company is designed to ensure that solar assets built today remain functional, properly billed and maintained years after their commissioning. It represents a shift from simply creating assets to ensuring their long-term stewardship.
The second pillar is finance — plugging the holes.
No electricity grid can remain stable if the financial system supporting it is insolvent. Tegbe’s second pillar therefore focuses on the financial conditions that determine whether power-sector assets can operate sustainably.
The headline figure from his first 100 days is the estimated N1.23 trillion raised towards settling the backlog of power-sector debt.
“We have raised an estimated 1.23 trillion naira towards settling the backlog of power-sector debt. This is a significant financing milestone. It forms part of the wider programme for addressing the 3.3 trillion naira in sector debt,” Tegbe said.
If fully deployed, the liquidity is expected to ease pressure on generating companies that have been producing electricity amid financial constraints, gas suppliers awaiting payment and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which requires resources to maintain and expand the network.
In the power sector, liquidity is closely tied to reliability. A financially weakened value chain ultimately affects the ability of operators to generate, transmit, distribute and maintain electricity.
But addressing the financial problem also requires stopping revenue leakages.
Tegbe disclosed that the Ministry had blocked revenue leakage associated with energy theft and other losses along the Ikorodu-Sagamu industrial corridor, where the losses were assessed at approximately N120 billion annually.
The intervention combines technical audits and enforcement with security agencies, signalling an attempt to treat electricity theft not merely as a distribution company problem but also as a national revenue protection issue.
At the heart of that effort is metering.
Few issues undermine consumer confidence in the electricity market more than estimated billing, while unmetered consumption also weakens the ability of distribution companies to collect revenue accurately.
Approximately 350,000 meters were installed during the first 100 days, while programme records put cumulative installations at 1,004,260 as of August 2026.
The resolution of the AMMON litigation also unlocked procurement of about 1.4 million smart meters across the affected programmes. Metering of military formations is progressing, with 90,000 installations recorded, according to the Minister.
The resolution of the litigation is significant because the dispute had stalled meter procurement for months. Its resolution has opened the way for the deployment of the 1.4 million smart meters.
The metering of military barracks is another component of the drive, particularly because unmetered public facilities can contribute significantly to unpaid electricity bills.
The Ministry is also looking beyond the immediate meter shortage to the human resources required to sustain the programme. Through the Power Force programme, 5,000 young Nigerians are undergoing training as smart-meter installers.
The initiative is intended to create employment while building the workforce required to address what the Minister described as a seven-million-metering gap.
On one of the most politically sensitive issues in the power sector — electricity tariffs — Tegbe was categorical.
“Gentlemen of the press, let me categorically state (and this is not a political statement), we have no plan to increase electricity tariffs,” he said.
The assurance came against the backdrop of persistent public anxiety over electricity costs and the wider challenge of balancing affordability for consumers with the financial sustainability of the power market.
The third pillar is governance and investment — making the rules work.
Here, Tegbe is leaning into the framework established by the Electricity Act 2023 and its provisions on decentralisation.
The Act defines the roles of different players in the electricity sector, including sub-national electricity regulatory commissions. Rather than treating decentralisation as a threat to the national market, the Ministry sees it as an opportunity to encourage innovation, competition and investment across the federation.
According to Tegbe, the Ministry is leading harmonisation initiatives aimed at fully operationalising the Act among the federating units and avoiding a fragmented market in which differing regulatory requirements could discourage investment.
The governance drive is closely connected to the Ministry’s investment mobilisation strategy.
A recent Nigeria-China power mission secured commitments from major Chinese firms and financiers, including Sinomach, CMEC and CNEEC.
CMEC reaffirmed its role in the 1.9GW Presidential Power Initiative portfolio, with the first transmission lines scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2027.
CNEEC advanced financing arrangements for the $116 million Zungeru evacuation project, with approval targeted before the end of the year. The project is intended to provide a critical evacuation link for the 700MW Zungeru hydro capacity so that generated electricity does not remain stranded.
TBEA committed to a proposed $500 million industrial park for power equipment manufacturing, alongside accelerated PPI work and a three-year delivery pathway for the East-West Super Grid. HengFei Cables also committed to supplying cables for PPI Phase Two and proposed a Nigerian assembly plant and training centre.
Engagements with CNECC and CCECC also advanced mobilisation approved by the Federal Executive Council for the Omotosho-Epe transmission line, revised Super Grid proposals, a 300MW distributed renewables programme and waste-to-energy pilots in Lagos and Abuja.
With CHEC, the Ministry coordinated support for Ajaokuta’s power-purchase arrangements, a proposed transmission corridor valued at approximately $340 million and healthcare electrification.
The emerging model is a shift from conventional turnkey contracts towards co-investment, with partners expected to bring capital and technology while working against defined completion schedules.
Technology is also becoming part of the equation.
According to Tegbe, the Ministry signed a cooperation agreement with Huawei Technologies covering grid digitalisation, loss reduction, SCADA gap assessment and talent development.
For a grid that continues to face significant visibility and control challenges, improved SCADA capability could strengthen the ability of operators to monitor the network and respond to faults.
Perhaps the most symbolic development of the first 100 days, however, came from the legal front.
Tegbe announced what he described as Nigeria’s victory in the arbitration of the Mambila Hydropower Project case.
“For almost two decades, Mambila, the 3,050MW hydro dream, has been trapped in arbitration. The victory frees the Federal Government to proceed,” he said.
He said the Ministry had expressed its commitment to the project and directed the contractor to explore the most pragmatic approach to delivering it, including the possibility of a phased implementation.
For a project that has existed in Nigeria’s development imagination for decades, the end of the arbitration represents the removal of one major obstacle. The next challenge is translating that legal development into physical construction and, eventually, electricity.
On the international front, Tegbe presented Nigeria’s power-sector approach at the Middle East Energy Leadership Summit in Dubai on September 1, while continuing engagements with UK PACT on hydropower and with the World Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, African Development Bank and SE4All on financing.
But perhaps what stood out most in his 100-day briefing was not the number of projects announced or the size of the financial commitments. It was the acknowledgement that progress at the national level does not necessarily translate into reliable electricity for every household.
“Gentlemen of the press, our list of achievements contains completed works, activities still under way and investment being mobilised. However, it is important to recognise that national progress can coexist with an unreliable feeder in a particular community. So, when we say that there are improvements in certain places, we do not categorically deny the experiences of those that are yet to benefit,” Tegbe told journalists.
That distinction matters in a country where national statistics can sometimes feel remote from the experience of individual consumers.
For a family still experiencing prolonged outages, a national increase in installed capacity or the completion of a transmission project may offer little immediate relief. The ultimate test of reform remains whether electricity becomes more reliable, billing becomes more accurate and faults are resolved more quickly.
Tegbe outlined four connected priorities for the next six months.
The first is to deepen grid stabilisation along the Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano corridors, with Lagos and Abuja serving as initial demonstration sites.
The second is to initiate development of the Transmission Super Grid while continuing corridor stabilisation through the Presidential Power Initiative. The East and West Grid programmes, larger hydro opportunities including Mambila, and small hydropower projects serving agricultural corridors are expected to form part of the medium- to long-term backbone.
The third priority is to improve the utilisation of existing assets and link electricity supply more directly to productive economic clusters. Bilateral arrangements between generating companies and distribution companies are being piloted to improve capacity utilisation and payment certainty, while TCN asset consolidation and balance-sheet restructuring are expected to support the process.
The fourth is preparation for future demand.
The Ministry’s eight-point agenda remains the guiding framework. It includes working with security agencies to protect critical national assets, pursuing lawful sanctions against vandalism and electricity theft, upgrading infrastructure, accelerating universal metering and entrenching transparency through performance indicators, scorecards, publication of costs and operator performance, as well as productivity incentives for staff.
Tegbe said that over the next six months, the Ministry would work to turn the repairs and reforms into more visible improvements.
“We will report progress against that benchmark, including changes in supply reliability, billing accuracy and the resolution of faults and complaints,” he said.
One hundred days is too short to fix a power sector problem that has accumulated over decades. Nigeria’s electricity crisis is not the product of one administration, one ministry or one failed project. It is a web of infrastructure gaps, financial weaknesses, regulatory challenges, technical limitations and institutional problems.
But the significance of the first 100 days may lie in the decision to focus on some of the blockages within that web: moving stranded equipment, unlocking meters stalled by litigation, addressing accumulated debts, tackling revenue leakages, strengthening transmission corridors, mobilising investment and clearing the legal obstacle around Mambila.
In a sector accustomed to ambitious promises, the real measure will ultimately be whether these interventions move beyond announcements and produce sustained improvements in the lives of electricity consumers.
For now, Tegbe’s “inches of improvement” are visible in the movement of equipment, the release of funds, the unlocking of meters and the reopening of projects that had remained stuck.
The challenge is to make those inches add up to a grid that can finally hold.
