I continue to make the argument to anyone that will listen that the separation of petroleum (something that is exported for government revenue) and power (something that the government tries and fails to provide the population) in Nigerian policy making is one of the biggest failures of conceptualisation. It’s all energy and policy should be focused on making it available first then affordable (market forces allowing).
Of course this is contingent on the political incentives, but big coordination low-hanging fruit is an energy ministry. And the main priority should be domestic energy surplus
The elites do understand the difference between light and electricity… The real issues are political will , accountability, industrial electricity policy etc.. A nation that seldom produces anything worth consuming will rarely think about electricity for production. The Telecom story in Nigeria remains a minuscule venture as oppose to Electricity covering the entire Nigeria 24 hours’ a day. Production must pay for electricity and that is where the problem lies!
“Wón ti mú iná dé o”. Growing up in Ibadan, I also thought of electricity as light until I began studying energy in Ife and only then realised we had grossly missed the mark and had conceived of energy in a very limited way. I’m not optimistic that this will change because it’s just so much work for a political class that is demonstrably very lazy.
As your rightly said, we have term, 'power', in the literal availability of 'light'.
Until, we power our minds beyond that myopic understanding. Which runs from the very top, of the people, in charge of these facilities, to the ordinary man, on the street, then we shall continue to shout, Up NEPA!!!!
This is insightful, the psychological approach is novel and illuminating, however an additional context is that Nigeria’s power sector is largely a criminal enterprise, once petroleum subsidies ended, the same actors quickly set up shop in the gas/electricity sector, the subsidy was 144 billion in 2022, jumped post-subsidy in 2023 to 645 billion, it climbed to 2 trillion in 2024, despite tariff hikes.
If they already make money by simply cooking the books and paying off regulators there’s no reason to reform, this concept of power you described is largely true across all European colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa and despite persisting challenges considerable progress has been made not only in generation but also distribution except in the continent’s open wound (Nigeria)
Nigeria needs to shut down NBET and sell TCN to save the power sector. The government should step aside and let the industry operate the way the banking sector does. Applying banking-style recapitalization rules would work wonders for Nigeria’s power sector. License seizures, forced mergers, and acquisitions need to happen.
A Siemens report I read stated that DisCos “receive only 45% of total revenue” because ATC&C losses average 55%, and that they were “only paying 28% on average” for energy received up the chain (TCN to NBET to GenCos). When that is the underlying cash engine, paying GenCos once, whether in cash or via a bond, does not change the fact that the system will keep re-accumulating deficits.
I continue to make the argument to anyone that will listen that the separation of petroleum (something that is exported for government revenue) and power (something that the government tries and fails to provide the population) in Nigerian policy making is one of the biggest failures of conceptualisation. It’s all energy and policy should be focused on making it available first then affordable (market forces allowing).
Correct. It has been such a missed opportunity
Of course this is contingent on the political incentives, but big coordination low-hanging fruit is an energy ministry. And the main priority should be domestic energy surplus
Every turn reveals the same constraint and solution (or path to a lasting solution): that Nigeria needs to move from consumption to production.
You've up-Nepa-ed my understanding of this subject. Thank sir.
But doesn't that raise the question why MAN isn't leading opinions on this subject? We only hear of them when they're complaining about diesel prices😅
It’s a very weird thing. You hear more from manufacturers about diesel than anything else 😄
The elites do understand the difference between light and electricity… The real issues are political will , accountability, industrial electricity policy etc.. A nation that seldom produces anything worth consuming will rarely think about electricity for production. The Telecom story in Nigeria remains a minuscule venture as oppose to Electricity covering the entire Nigeria 24 hours’ a day. Production must pay for electricity and that is where the problem lies!
“Wón ti mú iná dé o”. Growing up in Ibadan, I also thought of electricity as light until I began studying energy in Ife and only then realised we had grossly missed the mark and had conceived of energy in a very limited way. I’m not optimistic that this will change because it’s just so much work for a political class that is demonstrably very lazy.
Yes, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It is almost always about illuminating the dark.
Thank you Feyi, for another insightful comment.
As your rightly said, we have term, 'power', in the literal availability of 'light'.
Until, we power our minds beyond that myopic understanding. Which runs from the very top, of the people, in charge of these facilities, to the ordinary man, on the street, then we shall continue to shout, Up NEPA!!!!
This is insightful, the psychological approach is novel and illuminating, however an additional context is that Nigeria’s power sector is largely a criminal enterprise, once petroleum subsidies ended, the same actors quickly set up shop in the gas/electricity sector, the subsidy was 144 billion in 2022, jumped post-subsidy in 2023 to 645 billion, it climbed to 2 trillion in 2024, despite tariff hikes.
If they already make money by simply cooking the books and paying off regulators there’s no reason to reform, this concept of power you described is largely true across all European colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa and despite persisting challenges considerable progress has been made not only in generation but also distribution except in the continent’s open wound (Nigeria)
This is a sharp and uncomfortable truth.
We didn’t just inherit an electricity system, we inherited a mindset…one that sees power as comfort, not capability.
Until we start treating electricity as fuel for industry, not just relief from darkness, every reform will keep solving the wrong problem.
Nigeria needs to shut down NBET and sell TCN to save the power sector. The government should step aside and let the industry operate the way the banking sector does. Applying banking-style recapitalization rules would work wonders for Nigeria’s power sector. License seizures, forced mergers, and acquisitions need to happen.
A Siemens report I read stated that DisCos “receive only 45% of total revenue” because ATC&C losses average 55%, and that they were “only paying 28% on average” for energy received up the chain (TCN to NBET to GenCos). When that is the underlying cash engine, paying GenCos once, whether in cash or via a bond, does not change the fact that the system will keep re-accumulating deficits.
This makes absolute sense and is glaringly obvious, why don’t our leaders and policy makers understand and execute on this?