Nigerian government to invest $800 bn in power sector

Nigerian government to invest $800 million in power sector

LAGOS, September 2, 2024 – The federal government of Nigeria plans to invest USD 800 million in power infrastructure, according to a statement issued on Sunday by Bolaji Tunji, special adviser of media and strategic communication to the minister of power in Abuja.

The investment will be used to construct substations and distribution networks and is divided into two USD 400-million lots. One lot will cover the Benin, Port Harcourt and Enugu distribution companies (DISCOs), and the other will cover the Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Jos DISCOs.

The planned investment comes as a response to the unreliability of Nigeria’s national grid. Tunji expressed concern over the inability of Nigeria’s DISCOs to manage the country’s power supply. He further stated, “More than 59 % of industries in Nigeria are off the grid. They did not see the national grid as reliable and dependable. So a lot of them now operate their own captive, self-generated power.”

The investment will be a part of the government’s Presidential Power Initiative. By the end of the year, the federal government aims to increase the country’s power generation capacity to 6 GW.

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