• Nigeria faces $34.5B power gap to reach 2030 electricity goal
• Aging grid, poor metering, and financing delays hinder progress
• Only one-third of 13,500 MW capacity reaches national grid
  

Sector stakeholders meeting at the Nigeria Energy Conference that opened on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, said Nigeria faces a $34.5 billion investment gap to achieve universal electricity access by 2030.

The shortfall stems from decades of neglect of the country’s power plants and transmission infrastructure, which have undergone little major maintenance, reducing efficiency and increasing technical losses across the grid.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) reports that nearly 55% of consumers still lack functional meters. The lack of metering hampers accurate billing and cuts into the revenues of distribution companies. The Ministry of Power said that budget constraints and limited access to external financing have slowed modernization of the national grid and the rollout of electrification projects.

The estimate was jointly produced by the federal government, power distributors, and financial partners. Participants emphasized the need to modernize aging plants, reinforce transmission infrastructure, and extend the distribution network to unserved areas.

In response, authorities have launched several initiatives to improve grid reliability and sector management. In June 2024, the government announced plans to procure 3.5 million meters for households and businesses to strengthen revenue collection. These efforts build on grid modernization programs overseen by NERC and public investment plans to curb technical and commercial losses.

Local media report that although Nigeria has an installed generation capacity of 13,500 megawatts (MW), only about one-third is currently supplied to the grid.

The World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) estimate that connecting 300 million Africans under the “Mission 300” initiative would require $90 billion. Ghana, facing similar implementation delays, recorded $1.4 billion in losses in 2024.

Abdel-Latif Boureima