FG approves new eastern, western grids to end collapses, Nigerians to wait two to three years

The Federal Government has approved plans to develop new eastern and western electricity grids to tackle Nigeria's recurring national grid collapses. Minister of Power Chief Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe said Nigerians could start seeing the benefits of the projects in two to three years.

Tegbe disclosed this at an energy conference organised by the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN) in Lagos. He said the government was preparing to begin the procurement process for both grids.

Lagos and Abuja corridors get priority

The minister said the government had divided Nigeria into three energy zones to help identify the areas needing the most urgent intervention. He named the Lagos and Abuja corridors as the critical ones.

"If you fix Lagos and you fix the Abuja corridors, you've solved more than half of the problem of Nigeria," Tegbe said.

He added that President Bola Tinubu approved the plan to build the eastern and western grids, stressing that expanding transmission infrastructure must go hand in hand with better operational efficiency. The projects are expected to strengthen transmission and improve the reliability of power supply.

Technical audit underway nationwide

A nationwide technical audit is running to find weak points in the transmission network and decide which facilities need urgent repair or replacement. Tegbe said the exercise should be completed within a few weeks, after which the government will rank priority areas and direct money to them.

He argued that the audit would stop the government from spending on equipment that does not need attention.

"I don't want to fix transformer issues where I have conductor and relay problems. I don't want to fix insulators where the challenges I actually have are towers," he said.

The audit is meant to show whether individual components across the network need maintenance, rehabilitation or full replacement.

Towers built about 50 years ago

Tegbe blamed some of the persistent problems on infrastructure that has been in service for decades. He said some transmission towers and lines date back to the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN), which existed before the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).

According to the minister, some transmission structures were built about 50 years ago, and their age and deteriorating condition have contributed to the sector's difficulties. He described the situation as a longstanding challenge inherited by the current administration.

The grid expansion and the audit are part of the government's push to fix those structural weaknesses, lift transmission capacity and cut disruptions to electricity supply nationwide.

The two to three year timeline matters for manufacturers and small businesses that run on generators and diesel. Until the new grids and repairs deliver, grid instability remains a direct cost on production and on household incomes.