The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has unveiled a comprehensive action plan aimed at stabilising and transforming Nigeria’s electricity sector, insisting that meaningful reform will only succeed if every stakeholder in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) accepts collective responsibility for addressing the country’s longstanding power challenges.
Speaking at the second quarterly Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Stakeholders’ Meeting convened by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Abuja, Tegbe outlined a reform agenda centred on transparency, accountability, infrastructure protection and improved market governance.
The meeting, chaired by Dr. Musiliu Oseni, Chairman of NERC, brought together key industry players, including electricity generation companies (GenCos), distribution companies (DisCos), the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), regulators and policymakers. Also in attendance were the Special Adviser to the President on Power, Rilwan Lanre Babalola, and the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Power, Mahmuda Mamman.
Delivering the keynote address, the minister stressed that Nigeria’s electricity crisis was a shared challenge requiring collective ownership across the entire power value chain.
“Nigeria’s power crisis was not built by one hand, and it will not be fixed by one hand,” Tegbe declared, urging operators, regulators and government institutions to work collaboratively in delivering sustainable reforms.
A major plank of the minister’s agenda is the protection of electricity infrastructure. He called for power installations across the country to be formally designated as Critical National Assets, warning that vandalism, grid sabotage and electricity theft amount to economic sabotage with direct consequences for millions of Nigerians.
According to him, safeguarding existing infrastructure must go hand in hand with improving operational efficiency. He disclosed that the ministry is already addressing transmission bottlenecks, strengthening spinning reserves and upgrading priority substation protection systems to improve grid stability and reliability.
On electricity metering and tariff reforms, Tegbe said estimated billing had unfairly burdened consumers for years while concealing inefficiencies within the sector. He explained that the ministry is accelerating nationwide metering deployment to eliminate estimated billing and reduce Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses.
The minister added that government is also developing a sustainable tariff transition framework that would shield vulnerable consumers from excessive cost increases while providing investors with the confidence and certainty required to commit long-term capital to the sector.
Addressing market governance, Tegbe maintained that tariff reforms could only achieve their objectives if all market participants complied with payment obligations. He called for greater transparency in the calculation of Derived Remittance Obligations (DRO), insisting that confidence in the electricity market depends on openness and credible financial reporting.
“Trust in the market begins with trust in the numbers,” he said.
As part of efforts to deepen accountability, the minister announced plans to publish key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance scorecards for electricity generation and distribution companies, enabling Nigerians to assess the performance of operators across the sector.
He reaffirmed his commitment to three guiding principles—transparency, speed and accountability.
According to him, the Ministry of Power will operate without hidden agendas, remove bureaucratic bottlenecks that delay reforms and ensure that individuals or organisations whose actions undermine the sector are held accountable.
“Reform is not a promise deferred,” Tegbe said. “It is a discipline being executed, every day.”
