Nigeria is wasting more than 2,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity generation capacity every day because its transmission network cannot evacuate available power, even as an estimated 85 million Nigerians lack access to electricity, according to the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC).
The association said the country’s electricity crisis is no longer primarily a generation problem but a transmission and market liquidity challenge that continues to cripple the power value chain, leaving businesses and households dependent on costly self-generation.
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According to a report from ThisDay Newspaper, the chief executive officer of the APGC, Dr. Joy Ogaji, said Nigeria has sufficient installed generation capacity to significantly improve electricity supply, but weak grid infrastructure prevents available power from reaching consumers.
“Nigeria’s stranded power crisis is a transmission failure, not a generation failure,” Ogaji said. “The country has an installed capacity of over 15,500MW, yet the national grid can wheel only about 4,500MW. That gap is where the crisis lies.”
Transmission Bottlenecks Leave Thousands of Megawatts Idle
According to the APGC, between 2,500MW and 4,000MW of electricity generation capacity remains stranded or underutilized because the transmission system lacks the capacity to evacuate the power or suffers repeated infrastructure failures.
The association said declared stranded capacity averages between 150MW and 400MW daily, representing electricity that has already been generated—or is available for generation—but cannot be delivered to homes, industries and businesses.
Industry data show that as of December 2025, about 2,275.67MW of available electricity remained undelivered, representing 33.6% of total available generation—the highest stranded capacity recorded in five years.
The trend has remained persistent:
- 2021: 2,248MW stranded
- 2022: 1,816MW
- 2023: 2,227MW
- 2024: 2,180MW
- 2025: 2,275.67MW
The figures highlight a long-standing mismatch between electricity generation and transmission capacity despite billions of dollars invested in the sector.
Frequent Grid Collapses Continue to Disrupt Supply
The APGC said Nigeria’s transmission network remains highly unstable, citing 564 national grid collapses between 2000 and 2022—equivalent to more than two system failures every month for over two decades.
The instability persisted in 2026, when the country experienced three nationwide blackouts in January alone.
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On January 27, 2026, electricity generation reportedly plunged from 3,825MW at 10:00 a.m. to just 39MW by 11:00 a.m., effectively wiping out about 99% of grid power within one hour as all distribution zones simultaneously lost supply.
Businesses Spend Billions on Self-Generation
The unreliable electricity supply has forced businesses and households to rely heavily on diesel and petrol generators.
The APGC estimates Nigerians spend approximately $23 billion annually operating about 22 million generators to compensate for inadequate grid supply.
The economic impact extends beyond fuel costs.
The World Bank estimates unreliable electricity costs Nigeria between $26 billion and $29 billion annually in lost economic output, while the African Development Bank (AfDB) says power outages reduce company revenues by about 3% of annual sales, with 70.7% of Nigerian businesses owning or sharing generators.
Ogaji said the burden is particularly severe for small businesses.
