Nigeria to generate 8,000MW power before end of Tinubu’s first term – Minister

Abdullateef Fowewe

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has claimed that Nigeria is on track to generate and distribute at least 8,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity before the end of President Bola Tinubu’s first term in 2027.

Adelabu made this known on Thursday during a ministerial press briefing organised by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.

The Minister noted that under the current administration, Nigeria has already increased its power generation capacity by 1,700MW within two years, an achievement that took the country over three decades to replicate in the past.

Adelabu said, “In the country’s history of the power sector, let me tell our agencies, our operators, that this was achieved during our time.

“We have crossed the bar of 6,000 megawatts for the first time in the history of Nigeria’s power sector.

“That is not enough, this achievement was followed by a peak generation evacuation of 5,801.44 megawatts on 4th of March 2025, which also saw an impressive daily energy output, the highest ever, 128,370.75 megawatts per day on that very day.

“We’ve always been at 118,000 to 119,000 megawatts on a daily basis, but we achieved 128,000. That is the highest energy ever consumed in a day since the power sector came to being in Nigeria, and we are proud to achieve this.

“In summary, the average daily power generated and distributed in the first quarter of 2025 was 5,700 megawatts.

“Compared with what we met when we resumed office, average of 4,100 megawatts achieved in the third quarter of 2023, this indicate a growth of 1,600 megawatts, nearly 40% growth since we assumed office at the ministry.

“This is very important to us. I came into office August 2023, and between July, August, and September, what we achieved was 4,100 generated, evacuated, transmitted, and distributed, and it’s always been like that. Even though there were spikes in the past, it would go up, it would come down.

“It was not sustainable, and it took the country about 40 years. In 1984, when Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman was the federal minister of power, we achieved 2,000 megawatts of power generation.

“We took this to 4,000, about 2016-2022, so it took the country between 35 to 40 years to achieve 2,000 incremental generation.

“But this administration, thanks to our Mr. President for his support, in one and a half years, we grew this from 4,100 to a peak generation of 5,800; 1,700 increase in one and a half years.

“What we are saying is that past administrations have their own positives, creation of the NIPPs, a lot of things that they achieved.

“If they have been adding at least 1,000 megawatts of power since 1999, we’d be talking about 26,000 megawatts, plus 4,000, that would be about 30,000 megawatts of power in Nigeria today, but we cannot keep dwelling in the past.

“It’s the way forward. Now that we have created the trajectory, if we sustain this trajectory, I can assure you that before the end of this administration in 2027, we should be able to generate and distribute nothing less than 8,000 megawatts of power.

“So, given that it took the country almost 40 years to achieve an incremental 2,000 megawatts average energy, we accomplished this.”