Power minister Adelabu’s 6,000MW target eludes Nigeria

With the year drawing to a close, Nigeria looks set to miss the electricity generation target of 6,000 megawatts set by power minister Adebayo Adelabu. 

Total power generation in Africa’s most populous nation stood at 4,669.23MW as of 6am Nigerian time on Thursday, down from 4,810.71MW the previous day, data from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator (NESO) shows.

The maximum daily energy ever attained in the country of over 200 million people is 5,801.6MW, compared to a grid generation installed capacity of 13,014.14MW, a generation capacity of 7,652.6MW, a transmission wheeling capacity of 8,500MW, according to the NESO. 

Adelabu told lawmakers in April that the federal government had concluded plans to ramp up power generation to a target 6,000MW from 4,000MW by the end of 2024.

In May, during his ministerial address in Abuja while presenting achievements of his ministry since President Bola Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023, he said the country’s power supply rose to 5,000MW on May 3 for the first time in three years.

“We all know where we were before now. But we rose to the occasion and changed the situation for the better, and our target is to achieve 6,000MW before the end of this year, which will be the first time in the history of Nigeria, and it will happen,” the minister said at the time.

The country’s national power grid has collapsed 12 times this year, with the latest occurring on December 10.