Nigeria has no electricity shortage, says ex-NERC commissioner Ekpo

Former Commissioner, National Electricity Regulatory Company (NERC), Mr. Eyo Ekpo, has said that there is no shortage of electricity in Nigeria.

The lawyer and energy policy specialist explained that Nigerian homes and businesses provide themselves 10 times more electricity through petrol and diesel generators than the country’s electric power companies supply them through the national grid.

Ekpo pointed out that the real problem with the power sector is that Nigeria is stuck with a power delivery model that is “extremely costly and inefficient. ”Ekpo made this assertion during the European Business Chamber (EuroCham Nigeria) Stakeholder Conference on “Gaining Traction in Power Sector Reforms”.

The conference was organised to galvanize policy reforms that will unlock investment in Nigeria’s power sector and deliver stable electricity supply to Nigeria. Nigerian homes and businesses produce 40,000 megawatts of electricity with diesel and petrol generators daily while they are supplied only about 4,000 megawatts through the national grid. Ekpo likened this to “burning money” because of the N40 per kilowatt per hour difference between the cost of self-generated power (about N130 per kilowatt hour) and grid power (N90 per kilowatt hour).

He calculated that Nigerians “waste” N12 trillion every year, considerably higher than the national budget, by self-provisioning power with backup generators rather than being supplied from the national grid. Ekpo criticised the “patronising” decision of the government to hold down power tariffs, saying that “Nigerians want reliable supply of electricity through the national grid, Nigerians do not want low tariffs for grid-supplied power.”