Precious Obogo
Minister of Power, Mr Joseph Tegbe, has that practical efforts will continue to address tariff barriers and liquidity challenges plaguing the power industry, saying tariff reform could only hold if payment compliance was enforced across the board.
Tegbe, is also seeking for transparent Derived Remittance Obligation calculations, arguing that trust in the electricity market could not rest on opaque arithmetic. “Trust in the market begins with trust in the numbers,” he said.
It is reported that Nigeria’s power sector is crippled by a structural liquidity crisis exceeding ₦6 trillion in outstanding liabilities and legacy debts, heavily affecting Power Generation Companies.
Unpaid invoices, severe metering gaps, high commercial losses, and unreflective tariffs have drastically reduced cash flow, causing generation companies to scale down operations due to an inability to maintain equipment or purchase gas
Speaking on the above challenges, the Minister further outlined his Ministerial Action Plan for the stabilization and growth of Nigeria’s electricity sector, at the second quarterly Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Stakeholders Meeting recently convened by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Abuja.
The forum, which was Chaired by the Chairman of NERC, Dr Musiliu Oseni, featured power sector stakeholders including operators, regulators and policy actors and had in attendance the Special Adviser to the President on Power, Mr Rilwan Lanre Babalola, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Alh Mahmud Mamman.
Delivering the keynote address, the Minister framed his plans around a core conviction that Nigeria’s electricity crisis demands collective ownership across the entire value chain. “Nigeria’s power crisis was not built by one hand, and it will not be fixed by one hand,” he said, calling on GenCos, DisCos, TCN, NISO, regulators, and government to accept shared responsibility for both the depth of the problem and the discipline of the solution.
On infrastructure, Tegbe called for power assets to be formally designated and treated as Critical National Assets, describing vandalism, grid sabotage, and energy theft as economic warfare against ordinary Nigerian households.
He added that securing existing assets must run concurrently with optimizing their output, with transmission weak points, spinning reserves, and priority substation relays all being actively addressed to improve near-term grid reliability.
Turning to metering and tariffs, the Minister argued that estimated billing had for too long penalized poor Nigerians while masking systemic losses.
His ministry is working with stakeholders to accelerate metering rollout and reduce ATC&C losses, alongside developing a sustainable tariff transition pathway designed to protect the most vulnerable consumers from cost shocks while offering investors the long-term predictability that serious capital commitment demands.
The Minister further announced that his ministry is working toward the public publication of KPIs and performance scorecards for GenCos and DisCos, making both excellence and underperformance visible to the Nigerian public..
Closing his address, the Minister anchored his personal commitment to three principles: transparency, with no hidden agendas; speed, through dismantling bureaucratic bottlenecks; and accountability, with consequences for those who undermine the sector. “Reform is not a promise deferred,” he said. “It is a discipline being executed, every day.”
The 2nd NESI Stakeholders Meeting of 2026 was convened by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Abuja on Monday, 29 June 2026.