The federal government has ruled out any plan to increase electricity tariffs, saying its immediate priority is to improve power supply and strengthen the financial sustainability of the sector.
Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, made the declaration on Monday in Abuja during a media parley marking his first 100 days in office, covering June 8 to September 16.
“Let me categorically state, and this is not a political statement, we have no plan to increase electricity tariffs,” Tegbe said.
He explained that the government was concentrating on addressing structural weaknesses across the electricity value chain instead of placing additional financial burdens on consumers.
According to the minister, a review conducted after his assumption of office identified problems affecting gas supply, generation, transmission and distribution, as well as the commercial relationships sustaining the sector.
Tegbe said gas supplies to power plants had been constrained by damaged pipelines and commercial conditions that discouraged investment, while the generation fleet remained heavily dependent on ageing thermal plants.
He added that deferred maintenance, stalled projects and inadequate payment to generating companies had further weakened the system.
“Payment of only 27 per cent of generation companies’ bills” had undermined their capacity to maintain plants and pay gas suppliers, he said.
Transmission infrastructure, he added, was also under pressure from vandalised towers and lines, overstretched equipment and frequent system trips.
Distribution companies, meanwhile, were recording aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses of between 30 and 40 per cent.
Tegbe said inflation and foreign exchange pressures had increased operating costs across the market, while arrears owed by ministries, departments and agencies had exceeded N100 billion.
He said accumulated debts, regulatory uncertainty and inconsistent data had further complicated efforts to restore confidence in the electricity market.
“These problems reinforce one another. Unpaid bills weaken gas supply and maintenance; unreliable supply depresses collections; poor collections deepen debt,” the minister said.
He stressed that increasing generation alone would not solve the sector’s problems, noting that sustainable improvement required simultaneous repairs to the physical infrastructure and commercial structure of the electricity market.
During his first 100 days, Tegbe said the government focused on diagnosis and stabilisation.
He disclosed that the 375MW Alaoji open-cycle power plant had been restored to the national grid after three years offline.
Transformers commissioned at Apapa, Ijora, Alausa and Lekki in Lagos, he said, had unlocked 672MW of transmission capacity, while a new 300MVA transformer at Katampe, Abuja, unlocked another 240MW.
According to him, operational records showed generation and transmission rising above 5,000MW in the weeks before the media parley, compared with between 3,700MW and 4,700MW before June.
Generation peaked at 5,330MW in August and September, he added.
However, Tegbe acknowledged that improvements in national generation figures did not necessarily translate into reliable electricity for every community.
“National progress can coexist with an unreliable feeder in a particular community,” he said, adding that the government would not dismiss the experiences of consumers who were yet to benefit from the improvements.
On the financial crisis confronting the sector, the minister said the government had raised an estimated N1.23 trillion to address part of the N3.3 trillion power-sector debt backlog.
He also disclosed that approximately 350,000 electricity meters were installed within the first 100 days of his tenure, bringing cumulative installations to 1,004,260 as of August 2026.
Tegbe said the resolution of litigation surrounding the AMMON metering programme had also cleared the way for the procurement of about 1.4 million smart meters.
Looking ahead, he said the government would prioritise the stabilisation of the Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano transmission corridors while commencing work on a Transmission Super Grid.
Technical audits, he added, had already begun along the Lagos and Abuja corridors.
Tegbe said the ministry would measure its performance over the next six months through improvements in electricity supply reliability, billing accuracy and the speed with which faults and consumer complaints are resolved.
“Our original commitment to visible, incremental improvements remains the benchmark,” he said.
