The Federal Government has identified unauthorised electricity connections involving about 14 industrial customers along a particular corridor, with unpaid electricity charges exceeding N400 billion over the last few years. Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this at the 2026 Manufacturers Energy Security and Energy Efficiency Summit in Lagos. He said the unauthorised connections deprived the electricity sector of revenue needed to sustain supply and unfairly burdened consumers who paid their bills.
Tegbe said the government would pursue recovery and hold those responsible accountable. He urged manufacturers to support lawful electricity connections, warning that “this abuse cannot be allowed to continue.” The Minister also disclosed that the President had approved a coordinated anti-vandalism campaign involving railway security agencies to protect critical national assets and hold offenders accountable. Vandalism, he said, was a serious threat to the power sector, damaging critical infrastructure and disrupting electricity supply.
The government has developed a four-pronged roadmap to address the sector’s challenges, covering grid standardisation, sector liquidity and sustainability, asset optimisation, and expansion. The approach prioritises major electricity demand centres through corridors that align generation, transmission and distribution with demand. Lagos has been identified as the country’s first energy-zone corridor because it accounts for 50 per cent of national electricity demand. The government is working with the Lagos State Government to identify constraints affecting supply in the state.
A technical audit, which had been underway for four weeks, was expected to establish a diagnostic baseline for identifying infrastructure problems and prioritising interventions. Tegbe said the exercise was necessary to prevent spending money on the wrong projects without properly identifying the sector’s needs. Constrained gas supply, ageing equipment, network bottlenecks, vandalism and electricity theft are among the challenges affecting the sector.
Tegbe identified legacy debts owed to generating companies, which he put at N3.3 trillion after negotiations and reviews. The first and second tranches of the government’s payment programme had raised more than N1.2 trillion towards settling part of the debt. He is working with the Minister of State for Gas to develop a maintenance programme for gas facilities to prevent power plants from undergoing maintenance simultaneously.
Transmission capacity has increased by more than 15,000 megavolt-amperes between 2023 and 2026, with over 1,300MVA added in the preceding two months. More than 2.8 million customers had been metered in the past three years, while the Rural Electrification Agency had connected more than 25 tertiary institutions. The government had commenced construction of a new distribution control centre to improve the management of the electricity network.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is engaging distribution companies to prioritise electricity supply to industrial customers through improved network investment and the identification of dedicated industrial feeders. NERC Chairman, Musiliu Oseni, said distribution companies could access about $250 million under the Federal Government’s Distribution Sector Recovery Programme, supported by the World Bank, to improve network investment.
Key points
- The Federal Government has uncovered unauthorised electricity connections involving 14 industrial customers with unpaid charges exceeding N400 billion.
- The government has developed a four-pronged roadmap to address the sector’s challenges.
- Transmission capacity has increased by more than 15,000 megavolt-amperes between 2023 and 2026.
