Oil & Energy

When Will Nigerians Enjoy Stable Electricity?

Published

12 years ago

August 11, 2014

Unarguably, the provi
sion of stable and uninterrupted power supply is key for accelerated economic and industrial development of any country. Analysts are quick to point out that Nigeria’s quest to become one of the 20th economies in the world may as well be a mirage without stable electricity supply.
They say that stable electricity supply will reduce the cost of manufacturing and services; boost investment and employment, among others.
However, in spite of its importance, efforts to guarantee sustainable stability in the power supply chain has remained elusive despite huge investments in the sector by successive administrations since independence.
For instance, available records showed that the Olusegun Obasanjo’s government spent over three billion dollars on its National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) as at 2007. This, according to Gov. Gabriel Suswam of Benue, the Chairman, Joint Transaction Technical Committee, is out of the over 10 billion dollars earmarked for the NIPP.
He said that the amount was also inclusive of the two billion dollars Federal Government’s counterpart funding for Mambilla Hydro Power project and the 1.4 billion dollars set aside for additional nine turbines plants.
At the moment, four of the projects which on completion would generate 4,774MW, had been completed, while six others are at 80 to 90 per cent completion.
To further boost the initiative, the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has strengthened the power sector reform by fully privatising the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The exercise eventually resulted in the unbundling of the PHCN and the establishment of power Distributing Companies (DISCOs) across the country.
Although the reform is yet to significantly improve power stability nationwide, the World Bank, however, applauded the government for the initiative, with a call on other African countries to emulate the policy.
Mr Mukhtar Diop, the bank’s Vice President, Africa, made the commendation while listing some infrastructural achievements in Africa, during the recent African Union Summit on Financing Infrastructure Development, in Dakar, Senegal.
According to him, the power reform is one of the ways of solving Africa’s problems by Africans. “We must commend the leadership in Nigeria for the successful completion of the privatisation of the country’s power sector. “The electric reform in that country is one of the ways of solving Africa’s problems by Africans. We commend the country for that.”
It is, perhaps, against this backdrop, that President Goodluck Jonathan promised to restore uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians by the end of 2014.
Jonathan gave the assurance while commissioning the NIPP 500MW Omotosho II Power Station at Omotosho in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State.
He said that his optimism was based on the progress in the completion of the ongoing 10 independent power projects spread across the country.
“My administration is committed to boost electricity supply in the country. Today, we are in Ondo State to commission Omotosho Power Plant that will also serve the people of these areas and improve electricity supply in the country.”
But in spite of the government’s assurances, pundits doubt that uninterrupted and stable power supply to Nigerians would be achieved by the end of 2014.
Mr David Ladipo, whose company, Azura, is spending 700 million dollars to build a 450 MW plant in South Africa, insists that with the situation on ground, it will still take Nigeria 50 years from now to enjoy stable power supply.
Ladipo told Reuters news agency that Nigeria would need about 140,000MW to guarantee stable power supply.
‘’Nigeria is still scores of years away at this threshold. At present, it generates a meagre 4,000 MW for a population estimated at 170 million.
‘’South Africa, with a population of about 50 million people, produces about 40,000 MW of electricity and has been trying in recent years to increase output.
“It will probably take Nigeria another 50 years before it attains the same level of electricity consumption per capita as South Africa currently enjoys today,” Ladipo said.
However, Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State believes that with patience and commitment, Nigerians will soon enjoy the dividends of the ongoing power sector reforms.
Fashola expressed the optimism in Lagos at the closing ceremony of the 7th Lagos Economic Summit, tagged: Ehingbeti. According to him, the privatisation of the power sector will not be successful without the cooperation of investors and consumers.
He urged the public to develop energy conservation culture and manage existing power infrastructure adequately. “We should desist from illegal connections of electricity and ensure that our bills are paid appropriately.
“Electricity poles should not be used as speed breakers by reckless drivers; we should all protect the infrastructure from being damaged,’’ the governor said.
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, shares similar sentiments, noting that the Federal Government has concluded plans to explore ways of implementing the Indian power sector model in order to further boost the nation’s capacity to generate more power.
Nebo stated this recently in Abuja when he received a delegation on power from India.
The minister said that the Nigerian power sector which was still in a transitional stage after the privatisation still had a lot to learn from the Indian experience.
According to him, this is because of the peculiarity between both nations’ power sector. He said the ministry would soon summon a stakeholders’ forum of all Generating Companies (GENCOs), Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and the regulatory bodies to take a closer look on how India transformed its power sector.
Nebo also invited the Indian delegation to the first National Council on Power conference slated for August 2014 in order to have a robust discussion.
The minister assured the delegation that the Federal Government was committed to achieving 10,000 MW by the end of the year despite the challenges.
Speaking on behalf of the DISCOS, the Chief Executive Officer of Eko Disco, Mr Oladele Amoda, said the company had already had a technical arrangement with Tata of India.
He urged the India delegation to take seriously the issue of transfer of technology so as to fast-track the development of the sector.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Ajjampur Ghenashyam, who also spoke, advised Nigeria, as the hub of economic activities in the West African sub-region, to take the lead in the development of regional power market.
He said that India had achieved over 400 per cent leap in generation capacity in the last 10 years due to the competitiveness of the market.
Ghenashyam said countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan had already been enjoying from seamless cross-border market and this had further boosted confidence for investment flow into the sector.
The envoy said that India was ready to partner with Nigeria in the development of the nation’s power sector.
Nonetheless, analysts have advised the government to also invest in the development of alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar in order to boost the capacity of the country to meet its energy requirement.
They also advise the government to fast-track the completion of the NIPP projects in order to realise the objective of providing uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians by the end of 2014.
Mr Adamu,writes for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Sani Adamu

L-R: Chairman, Liaoning Efacec, Chief Sam Amyamele, Vice President, Engineering, Mr Li Jiawei, Vice President, International, Ms Hliang Xae Li and Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, signing a memorandum on power in Abuja, recently.

Oil & Energy

Resource Wars Are Here and Oil Is the First Casualty

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

In just over a year, the world saw several instances of a choked supply of commodities indispensable for today’s economies and military capabilities.

From China’s restrictions on rare earths and critical minerals supply to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, policymakers and analysts began to realize that the control of oil, critical minerals, rare earths, and magnets is as important as building and maintaining stockpiles of advanced weapons. It also became clear that without these resources, defense and military capabilities could be weakened. The actual arms race goes hand in hand with the new battle for the resources that underpin economic, manufacturing, and advanced military development.

“Great-power competition has returned to basics: who controls the physical resources that modern economies and militaries run on,” Alice Gower, a partner at London-based political-risk advisory firm Azure Strategy, told the Wall Street Journal.

“Energy, critical minerals and industrial capacity are leverage, not just economic assets,” Gower added.

The war in the Middle East and the blockage at the Strait of Hormuz laid bare the reality of choked energy supply. The world’s most vital oil and LNG chokepoint, through which 20% of daily global trade flowed before the Iran war, has been essentially closed for most tanker traffic for more than three weeks.

The massive supply shock, the worst disruption in the oil market in history, showed that the world is dependent on energy resources, and that geography and actual physical supply matter. With so much oil and gas stranded in the Middle East, oil prices spiked to above $100 per barrel, natural gas prices in Europe doubled, and Asian spot LNG prices hit multi-year highs.

The precarious situation in the Middle East is reverberating across Asia, the region most dependent on oil and LNG supply from the Persian Gulf. Asian refiners pay sky-high premiums for non-Middle Eastern crude, many are considering cutting or have already cut processing rates, and countries have started to enact fuel-preserving measures, from four-day work weeks to bans on fuel exports.

In Europe, the gas refilling season will be the toughest yet, as Asia is outbidding Europe for spot LNG supply after Qatar’s LNG is effectively sidelined and full capacity may not return for up to five years following Iranian missile attacks last week.

Even the ‘energy independent’ United States, the world’s top oil producer, is not independent when it comes to global supply shocks of such magnitude.

The national average price of gasoline is approaching $4 per gallon nationwide, more than $1 a gallon compared to a month ago, before the start of the war.

Oil is a global resource, traded on a global market, and prices reflect fundamentals, although they have been driven by hectic trading activity on geopolitics in recent weeks. But the fundamentals show that there is no resource available to plug the gap that has opened in Middle Eastern supply. Producers are slashing output due to a lack of storage capacity, which further delays a rapid recovery in supply when this mess ends.

All this goes to show that whoever controls the Strait of Hormuz has enormous leverage on inflicting global economic pain.

While the world is focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the race for rare earths and critical minerals continues, with the U.S. and Western countries scrambling to dent China’s dominance.

Since China restricted exports of rare earth elements early in 2025, Western countries have raced to create mine-to-magnet supply chains to reduce dependence on Chinese supply in the key military and automotive industries.

China holds a 59% share of the mining of rare earths, 91% in refining, and a whopping 94% in magnet manufacturing, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates.

The U.S. has responded by taking stakes in minerals mining companies, the launch of a U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, known as Project Vault, and is leading efforts to break the Chinese stronghold on the pricing of these minerals critical for the defense and auto industries and national security.

Chinese dominance could be eroded, but it would take years.

Still, rising neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) supply from countries like the U.S. and Australia is set to reduce China’s market share to 69% by 2030 from 90% in 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) said in new research this month.

“We’re seeing a surge in rare-earth investment as modern technologies demand more critical materials,” said Jack Baxter, Global Metals & Mining Analyst at BI and co-author of the report.

“That said, we anticipate a significant shortfall in supply due to trade uncertainties, with lead times as long as 10 years to get new material out of the ground,” Baxter added.

“This will give pricing power to the few producers that currently are able to supply critical materials outside of China, fracturing the globalized market.”

Amid fractured markets and high geopolitical uncertainty, one thing is certain – the next arms race, alongside the actual arms race, will be for control of key resources such as oil and critical minerals.

By Tsvetana Paraskova

Oil & Energy

Transcorp Energy, Renewvia Partner On Renewable Energy Gap

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

Transcorp Energy Limited and Renewvia Solar Nigeria Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop renewable energy projects across Nigeria.

The move is aimed at addressing the persistent power deficit that has crumble businesses in the nation.

The agreement also outlines a longer-term plan to expand operations across Africa, positioning both firms to tap into growing demand for clean and reliable electricity.

The partnership would target commercial, industrial and residential consumers, as well as underserved communities, through a mix of off-grid and grid-connected energy solutions.

Beyond electricity provision, the collaboration would explore the aggregation and monetisation of Renewable Energy Credits generated from the projects, adding a commercial layer to the clean energy rollout.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp Energy, Chris Ezeafulukwe, said the initiative aligns with the company’s broader strategy to expand access to sustainable power.

He noted that combining grid and decentralised energy systems would enable the company to deliver reliable electricity directly to end-users across different segments of the economy.

Chief Executive Officer of Renewvia, Trey Jarrard, described Nigeria as a critical market for the company’s African ambitions.

According to him, the partnership provides a platform to scale operations rapidly by leveraging established infrastructure and local expertise, while delivering cost-effective and resilient energy solutions.

Both companies said the agreement lays the foundation for a scalable pan-African renewable energy business, capable of supporting diverse markets and accelerating the continent’s transition to cleaner power sources.

The collaboration comes amid increasing pressure on governments and private sector players to deploy sustainable energy solutions to bridge electricity gaps, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and support economic growth across Africa.

Oil & Energy

IYC Tasks Niger Delta Governors On Oil Field Bidding ….Decries Exclusion of Host Communities

Published

2 weeks ago

March 30, 2026

The Tide

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has raised concerns over the continued exclusion of host communities from the governance of oil resources, urging Niger Delta governors to take decisive steps by bidding for oil blocs and marginal fields.

The council warned that failure to act would allow external interests to continue dominating the region’s oil assets, despite their location within host communities.

Secretary-General of the council, Maobuye Nangi-Obu, started this at the stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited , with participants drawn from Rivers, Abia and Imo States, in Port Harcourt, recently.

“It is time for state governments in the Niger Delta, especially Rivers State, to form oil companies that can bid for marginal fields within their territories”, he said.

Nangi-Obu expressed concern over the reported listing of about 25 marginal oil fields for allocation, noting that many were located in host communities but allegedly being assigned to non-indigenes.

In his words “They sit in Abuja and decide what happens in our region, yet we are not part of the oil governance of our own resources”.

He explained that marginal fields, though considered uneconomical by major oil firms, remain viable for indigenous operators, adding that their allocation had continued to fuel grievances in the Niger Delta.

The IYC scribe also warned of the implications of directional drilling, describing it as a growing threat to host communities.

“There could be oil wells in your community, and somebody elsewhere could be drilling that oil without your knowledge,” he cautioned.

On environmental concerns, Nangi-Obu condemned the persistent gas flaring in the region, blaming both international and local operators for failing to invest in gas processing infrastructure.

He, however, commended Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited for its engagement with host communities.

“Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited is doing the right thing by engaging stakeholders. Not all companies are doing what they are doing,” he stated.

Traditional rulers at the meeting, further acknowledged improvements linked to the company’s activities in their areas.

The Eze Ekpeye-Logbo, King Kevin Anugwo, represented by Dr Patricia Ogbonnaya, noted that “aquatic life that disappeared due to pollution is gradually returning,” attributing the development to improved environmental conditions.

Similarly, Chairman of the K-Dere Council of Chiefs, Chief Batom Mitee, said, “There is now peace in our community,” stressing, increased oil production must translate into tangible benefits for host communities.

By: King Onunwor