Nigeria’s National Grid Collapses Again, 8th Times In 2024
For the 8th time in 2024, Nigeria’s power grid collapsed early Saturday, plunging millions of households and businesses into darkness. The incessant collapse has sparked widespread frustration and outrage across the country, with many calling for urgent action to address the persistent power supply crisis.
The National Grid, which is managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has experienced 105 collapses in the last decade despite the billions of dollars approved as loans for the electricity sector. In the current administration alone, the electricity sector has secured loans over $1bn from different financial groups. In December 2023, the World Bank approved the $750 million distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project in Nigeria. In July 2024, the African Development Bank Group, AfDB, approved a loan of $ 500 million to Nigeria to help transform the country’s electricity infrastructure and improve access to cleaner energy resources.
Nigeria has secured at least $1.25 billion in loans from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to boost electricity supply under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The collapse has affected major cities, including Lagos, Abuja, and Kano, with reports of power outages in several states. The outage has disrupted economic activities, causing losses for businesses and impacting services.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, “the recent escalating incidence of grid disturbances often leading to marked outage in several states thus reversing many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.”
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu while talking on the matter of the grid collapse at the unveiling of Hexing Livoltek, says that there different regions and states needs to have power grid to end the incessant grid collapses.
Also, the minister noted that the collapsing of the grids is nearly inevitable in the country, given the deplorable state of the country’s power infrastructure.
Some Nigerians have expressed distaste on the incessant grid collapse. Pat Utomi, in his X handle, wrote, “It is raining misery in Nigeria. Every call I received today burdened my soul. How many collapses of the national power grid can any system tolerate. Road travel has been abandoned, according to a friend in PH because you are not sure the greater danger; police, thieves or bandits when you journey by road, and flying has been priced out of reach as inflation drags the middle class into multidimensional poverty”.
Also, one David Offor on his X handles wrote, “Within one year Minister Adebayo Adelabu has been able to increase our Power capacity from about 4000 megawatts to 5,500 megawatts now, targeting 6,000 megawatts by December. When he said we should give time and we would be switching off our fridges, he meant it.”
However, the latest news from the Nigeria National Grid from the X handle says that TCN is expected to complete the repair of faulty lines today.
Recall that The Transmission Company Nigeria had earlier announced that two towers along it 330KV Shiroro-Kaduna Transmission lines one and two have vandalised damaging parts of both transmission lines.
As Nigeria struggles to provide stable electricity to its citizens, the economic and social implications of the grid collapse can not be overstated. The federal government must take urgent action to address the root causes of the problem and invest in modernizing the power infrastructure.
