Navigating the Prevailing Challenges of the Nigerian Power Sector

Abstract

The Nigerian power sector continues to suffer from the resource curse. With the abundance of natural and renewable energy resources, somehow the Nigerian power sector has failed to meet the energy demand. Over the years, lack of political will and inadequate investments as regards the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity have led to very costly outages. The frequent collapse of the national grid has led to use of diesel/gasoline generators as a stop gap measure for producing electricity. However, this approach significantly increases the cost of production of goods/services (especially with the Russia-Ukraine war) and pollutes the environment/ecosystem. The objective of this paper is to take and in-depth analysis of the problems of the Nigerian power sector beginning with the regulatory framework to the different actors of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry NESI (The Gas producers, The Nigerian Gas Company, The Generation Companies, The Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Distribution Companies). Our goal is to achieve a fundamental balance between the affordability, reliability and sustainability of electricity, otherwise known as the energy trilemma.