Despite trillions of naira invested in Nigeria’s electricity sector, repeated national grid collapses recorded in early 2026 have reignited concerns that funding alone cannot resolve the country’s long-standing power crisis.
Energy experts, system operators and industry analysts, speaking in separate interviews following the latest nationwide outages, warned that the recurring failures expose deep structural, technical and governance weaknesses that continue to undermine grid stability despite heavy government spending.
According to sector insiders, the persistent collapses point to fundamental design flaws and coordination failures within the power system, suggesting that increased funding without far-reaching reforms may only prolong existing inefficiencies.
“We talk about expansion, but in reality a lot of what happens is emergency repair,” a senior engineer at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said on condition of anonymity. You can’t keep stretching an old system and expect stability.”
Another engineer at the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) noted that the grid lacks sufficient redundancy to absorb shocks.
“When there is a disturbance, there is little redundancy to absorb it. That’s why a fault in one part of the country can cascade and shut down the entire system,” he said.
“Funding is important, but it is not the silver bullet. You can inject all the money in the world, but if the grid is weak, poorly maintained and badly managed, collapses will keep happening.”
Former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Sam Amadi, has also argued that the sector’s problems go beyond finance, pointing to systemic design issues.
“If I were to go back there, one of the things I would do is to be more brutal, radical. The system in Nigeria is designed not to perform,” Amadi said in an earlier interview.
In the last two years, the Federal Government has rolled out several large-scale financial interventions aimed at stabilising the electricity market.
These include a N4 trillion bond programme to clear legacy debts owed to generation companies and gas suppliers, as well as a N185 billion gas debt settlement to secure fuel supply for thermal power plants.
Budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Power surged to N2.086 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year, with more than N2.076 trillion earmarked for capital projects such as transmission expansion and grid reinforcement.
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Under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), about N150 billion was allocated to transmission projects, while roughly N700 billion was approved through FAAC for the rollout of 1.1 million electricity meters nationwide by the end of 2025.
Despite these interventions, Nigeria recorded multiple national grid collapses in 2025, with at least two failures already occurring in early 2026, raising fresh questions about the effectiveness of the spending and the resilience of the transmission network.
While the bond programme has eased liquidity pressures for generation companies, sector players argue that clearing debts without fixing transmission bottlenecks has not translated into grid stability.
“You can generate more power, but if the grid can’t evacuate it safely, you are creating more instability,” a senior NDPHC engineer said.
Analysts have also raised governance concerns, pointing to overlapping responsibilities among the Ministry of Power, TCN, the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), NERC and other market institutions.
Energy analyst Betty Onalapo has called for an independent forensic audit of the national grid to assess how funds have been spent and whether projects delivered value.
For Dr Amadi, establishing a Presidential Review Taskforce made up of experienced professionals could help address systemic weaknesses.
“Electricity challenge is not just engineering; it’s about adaptive capacity and understanding of the market,” he said.
“The taskforce should examine all aspects of the electricity supply industry and recommend quick, practical interventions.”
Former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr Joe Abah, has questioned Nigeria’s reliance on a single, centralised grid, arguing that decentralised or regional grids could reduce systemic risk.
Nigeria’s transmission infrastructure remains one of the weakest links in the electricity value chain, with many assets operating beyond their originally designed lifespan. Investigations show that several 330kV and 132kV transmission lines are decades old and increasingly prone to failure.
Sector insiders say funding announcements often outpace execution, with projects delayed by procurement bottlenecks, right-of-way challenges and weak supervision. As a result, the grid frequently runs close to its maximum tolerance, leaving little room to absorb shocks.
Delays in completing key transmission projects under the Presidential Power Initiative have further constrained the system’s resilience, allowing even minor disturbances to cascade into nationwide outages.
Attempts to obtain comments from TCN spokesperson Mrs Ndidi Mbah were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
Nigeria’s latest blackout, reported earlier this week, marked the second national grid collapse in 2026, with NISO attributing the earlier outage to a system-wide disturbance.