Electricity sector assessment in Nigeria: the post-liberation era

To improve the electricity services in Nigeria, the government has embarked on a total reform of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. The reform started with rehabilitating the government-owned electricity infrastructures in 1999 and implementing the 2010 Power Sector Reform. While some stakeholders have seen these reforms benefit the industry, others have yet to see the positive impact of the reforms. Based on this premise, this work presents a synopsis of the Nigerian power sector's past, present, and future. A review of its state of the art is explored and presented using documents and recent literature on the Nigerian electricity sector. Findings from the study show that infrastructural deficits and administrative lapses dominated the pre-liberation era. The privatization of electricity led to organizational structure and infrastructure improvements. The sector was unbundled into the GenCos, TransCo, Discos, and the regulatory bodies assigned well-defined tasks. The generation capacity has increased to 16,384 MW against the pre-liberation figure of approximately 6000 MW. As against the approximate figure of 10,000 km covered by the transmission infrastructure, an additional 10,000 km has been added to the existing transmission facilities. Although there have been improvements in service deliveries, there are still more grounds to cover to stabilize the Nigerian electricity sector. It is proposed that stakeholders harmonize the various policies and structural changes to make the necessary improvements.

Automated summary

In order to improve the electricity services in Nigeria, the government has implemented a comprehensive reform of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, starting from rehabilitating the government-owned electricity infrastructures in 1999 and implementing the 2010 Power Sector Reform. While some stakeholders have seen the positive impact of these reforms, others are yet to experience the benefits. This study provides an overview of the past, present, and future of the Nigerian power sector, exploring its state of the art and proposing the necessary improvements for stabilization.