As Nigeria’s power sector witnessed a rise in electricity generation, the companies behind power production have condemned the Federal Government’s failure to pay the N4.7tn debt owed to Gencos by the sector.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria disclosed on Tuesday that the nation’s power generation hit 5,713.60 megawatts, the highest since four years ago.
While there are speculations that the steady rise in power generation might be a result of cash inflow occasioned by last year’s tariff hike for Band A customers, the generation companies told The PUNCH that there was no improvement in liquidity as they are “seriously suffering.”
Similarly, electricity consumers said it was shameful that the Federal Government could be celebrating 5,713MW in a nation with over 200 million people.
In a statement on Tuesday, the TCN announced that the power sector had achieved a new peak generation for the year 2025, and it was successfully transmitted.
It stated that the feat was recorded on Tuesday, surpassing the 5.543MW that it announced was generated on February 14.
“This was recorded on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at 21:30 hours, with the new generation peak of 5,713.60 megawatts, surpassing the previous peak generation of 5,543.20MW achieved on February 14, 2025, by 170.40MW,” the TCN stated.
It clarified that though this new peak is 88MW lower than the all-time maximum peak generation of 5,801.60MW recorded on March 1, 2021, it remains a notable achievement.
The transmission company added that the maximum daily energy also rose to 125,542.06 megawatt-hours, up from the 125,159.48MWh achieved last month.
“Furthermore, a new record for the maximum daily energy ever attained in the history of the electricity industry in Nigeria was also set yesterday, with a total of 125,542.06 megawatt-hours. This surpasses the previous record of 125,159.48MWh achieved on February 14, 2025, by 382.58MWh,” the statement concluded.
In an interview with our correspondent, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr Joy Ogaji, said the TCN is in the best position to explain the steady rise in power generation, rebuffing insinuations that this might be linked to increased cash flow and liquidity in the sector.
Ogaji disclosed that the Gencos are suffering, and they need urgent and pragmatic solutions to ease their liquidity crisis. She stated that the liquidity crisis is N4.7tn.
“TCN has the answers (for the rise in power generation). As for liquidity, GenCos are seriously suffering and urgently need pragmatic solutions to ease the liquidity crisis, totalling N4.7tn,” Ogaji replied when asked if the power generation uptick could be attributed to improved liquidity.
On what the Federal Government is doing to resolve the crisis, she retorted, “Well, they said they are working on something.”
‘5713MW shameful’
Electricity consumers have said it was shameful that the TCN could describe attaining 5,713MW as an achievement when millions of Nigerians are still in darkness.
The Executive Director of the Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre, Princewill Okorie, wondered why the TCN was the agency announcing the new generation instead of the GenCos.
Okorie alleged that the TCN cannot transmit the 5,713MW, saying that was why the national grid keeps collapsing.
“It is shameful that Nigeria is still celebrating 5,700MW in this century. Is the TCN the one to celebrate over 5700MW? Are they the generation companies? Do they have the capacity to wheel the 5,700MW?
“They don’t have the capacity to transmit the power, which is why you keep seeing grid collapses now and then. We should be ashamed that we are celebrating that kind of generation in a country of over 200 million people. If you divide that by the 774 local governments in Nigeria, how many megawatts will go to each local government? It is too low,” he stated.
Okorie accused distribution companies of extorting the consumers, saying they make money from services not rendered while the generation companies wallow in debt.
“The DisCos are collecting money and extorting their customers. They collect money for services not rendered. Who is talking about the debt owed to the generation companies? The generation companies are in deep debt and the government seems not bothered. But the DisCos are collecting money, especially from unmetered customers,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the government said the targets for achieving universal electrification and phasing out self-generation by 2030 are no longer feasible and have been extended to 2035.
In the National Integrated Electricity Policy document, it was revealed that this adjustment became necessary in light of the challenges faced in the distribution sector, which has not seen the same progress as the generation sub-sector.
The Federal Government stated that despite improvements in power generation, the distribution network continues to struggle, leading to a lack of creditworthiness.
It added that delaying the goal by five years could result in an additional $29bn in costs and an increase of 90 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions. Despite this, the Federal Government is planning to increase electricity tariffs.
The PUNCH reports that over 250 industries and institutions have dumped the national grid to generate their own electricity. The organisations, many of whom are bulk electricity users, shunned the national grid to generate reliable electricity for themselves.
Findings from different data sources, particularly from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, showed that the firms have generated up to 6,500 megawatts of electricity altogether. This is higher than the country’s power generation, which is currently hovering around 5,000MW.