The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has disclosed that the nation’s power sector generated a total sum of N700 billon in market revenue in 2024, following the introduction of the Tariff Bands.
Chief Adelabu disclosed this while presenting the Federal Ministry of Power’s performance for the first quarter of 2025 at the Sixth Edition of the Ministerial Press Briefing held on Thursday at the National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja.
He said “due to our transformative tariff reforms, the market has generated an additional N700 billion in revenue, reflecting a 70% increase.
“This results from the cost-reflective tariff adjustment for Band A customers. Market revenue for 2024 rose from NGN 1 trillion in 2023 to NGN 1.7 trillion.
“This growth in market revenue is unprecedented, as the highest growth previously achieved was 20%. This positively impacts the reduction of the government-subsidised tariff shortfall by 35%, decreasing it from NGN 3 trillion to NGN 1.9 trillion.
The Minister said the achievement demonstrated that financial viability and service delivery could coexist harmoniously.
He said the government’s commitment to energy access was further demonstrated when it signed the Nigerian Energy Compact in January in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The initiative, according to him, led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, aligns with the government’s aspiration to expand energy generation.
He explained that the target of M300 was to extend energy access to an additional 300 million Africans by 2030 out of the 600 million currently lacking access, which Nigeria would be benefiting about 25%.
He listed other milestone achievements to include the establishment of the National Independent System Operator (NISO, the successful transfer of regulatory oversight to 11 states, enabling subnational control over the electricity markets, and the diligent efforts of the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company, which resulted in the reconciliation and reduction of Federal Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) debts owed to Abuja DisCo by 47.4%, decreasing from ₦15.53 billion to ₦8.17 billion.
Adelabu noted that March 2, 2025, Nigeria reached a remarkable generation available capacity of 6,003 MW, marking the first time in the history of the country.
“This achievement was followed by a peak generation evacuation of 5,801.44 megawatts on 4 March 2025, which also saw an impressive daily energy output of 128,370.75 megawatt-hours on that day,” he added.
The Minister submitted that the average daily power generated and distributed in the past quarter of 2025 was 5,700 MW compared with the 4,100 MW achieved in the third quarter of 2023.
“This indicates a growth of 1,600 MW, nearly 40% growth since we assumed office at the Ministry. Given that it took the country almost 40 years to achieve an incremental 2,000 MW average energy, we accomplished this in less than two years,” he said.
The Minister said in terms of generation, Nigeria has a 14GW capacity potential of hydropower but only utilises about 20%.
As a result, he said the government is working on a hydropower plan for small hydro dams under the Sustainable Power and Irrigation in Nigeria (SPIN) program.
Adelabu informed that the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) Pilot Phase delivered infrastructure across 13 locations, adding 700MW to the national grid.
He announced that due to the success of the pilot phase, the ministry has gotten the approval of the President and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to proceed to Phase One of the PPI Project.
Hence, he said contracts have been signed with Siemens, CMEC, Elswedy and Power China – and financing arrangements are at the advanced stages to support implementation.
On metering, he said following the launch of the Presidential Metering Initiative, backed by a ₦700 billion FAAC allocation, a new SPV has been set up with the board fully constituted to lead implementation.
“We target 1.1 million meters by the end of 2025, with 2 million annually for the next five years and the procurement process has started,” he added.
He also said that through the World Bank-funded Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP), over 3.2 million meters would be procured and installed alongside meter data management solutions for DISCO optimisation, adding the first batch of 75,000 meters under ICB1 arrived in April, with 200,000 more expected in the month of May 2025.
Adelabu listed the challenges facing the sector to include N4trillion owed the generation companies through tariff shortfalls, rampant vandalism, power theft and unpaid bills, resistance to tariff review, and poor investment by operators.
