Yemisi Izuora
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called for concessionary credit to operators in the power sector and also granting import waivers as part of reforms to ensure stability in the country’s electricity market.
The Chamber also advised Government to partner with the private sector in both policy formulation and implementation.
Reacting to the incessant grid collapse, the Director General (DG) of the LCCI, Chinyere Almona, highlighted the potential economic benefits of a stable national grid, including reduced production costs for businesses, enhanced competitiveness of Nigerian products in international markets, and increased foreign exchange earnings from electricity exports to neighboring countries.
“The 2023 Annual Report of NERC showed that international bilateral customers from countries, such as Niger, Benin, and Togo, made a total payment of $50.36 million to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) for electricity distribution in 2023,” she said.
While acknowledging ongoing reforms in the power sector, the LCCI DG urged the Government to accelerate its efforts to bring about lasting improvements.
According to Almona, to resolve the ongoing issues of poor power supply and frequent national grid collapses, the government should establish a conducive regulatory framework.
The national grid has collapsed eight times in 2024, with the first recorded on February 4.
The LCCI also called on Government to consider the privatisation of the national grid as part of efforts to address the recurring collapses.
Almona, in the statement titled “Finding a Lasting Solution to the Frequent National Grid Collapse,” said Nigeria has recorded eight grid failures in 2024 alone, three of which occurred within a single week.
She described the national grid’s deteriorating performance as a matter of serious concern for the business community.
“With businesses suffering from the burden of poor power supply, we need quick intervention actions to salvage the situation,” the LCCI DG said.
“We urge the government to consider the privatisation of the national grid and support more efforts to scale up metering in the coming months.
“Currently, the national grid only generates about 4,500MW of electricity for over 200 million people. Meanwhile, South Africa generates about 50,000MW of electricity to service about 59 million people.
“What lessons have we learned from past grid collapses and restoration efforts? By now, after numerous failures, the national grid managers should have identified the root causes and found lasting solutions.
“It is concerning that there appears to be no clear understanding of these causes or lessons learned from the restoration processes.
“After about 105 collapses in 10 years, power sector stakeholders should know what drives these recurring failures and how to prevent them.
“We are troubled by the apparent lack of such understanding among regulators in the power sector.”
She urged the government to remain committed to ongoing power sector reforms, particularly in meeting metering targets.
The LCCI DG cited a recent report from the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) indicating a significant drop in meter installation by electricity distribution companies (DisCos), with installations decreasing by 60.86 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2024.
“The report further said only 49,188 meters were installed during the period, making a 60.86 per cent decline from the 125,664 meters installed in the first quarter,” Almona added.
“We urge the Government to stay on course with the reforms in the power sector, especially the metering targets that were earlier set.
“We call on NERC to create a conducive regulatory environment for the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to utilise a mix of all the meter financing frameworks outlined in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider (MAP) and National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).”
