Trillions spent, Grid still fails — why money alone can’t fix Nigeria’s Power crisis

 

Despite trillions of naira invested in Nigeria’s electricity sector, repeated national grid collapses in 2026 have renewed concerns that funding alone cannot solve the country’s long-standing power problems.

Energy experts, system operators, and industry analysts, speaking separately to Nairametrics, say the latest outages expose deep structural, technical, and governance weaknesses that continue to undermine grid stability.

According to insiders, many of the so-called upgrades are often emergency repairs, not true system expansion.

“We talk about expansion, but in reality, a lot of what happens is emergency repair. You can’t keep stretching an old system and expect stability,”

— a senior engineer at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) told Nairametrics anonymously.

Engineers say the grid lacks redundancy, making it vulnerable to nationwide failure from a single fault.

“When there is a disturbance, there is little redundancy to absorb the shock. That’s why a fault in one part of the country can cascade and shut down the entire system,”

— an engineer at the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) said.

Another expert stressed that funding without reform only prolongs inefficiency:

“Funding is important, but it is not the silver bullet. You can inject all the money in the world, but if the grid is weak, poorly maintained, and badly managed, collapses will keep happening.”

Former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi, had earlier echoed similar views:

“If I were to go back there, one of the things I would do is to be more brutal, radical. The system in Nigeria is designed not to perform.”

Meanwhile, gas suppliers say lingering uncertainty around payment timelines and pricing, despite partial settlement of arrears, continues to discourage long-term supply planning.

Experts conclude that the repeated grid failures highlight the limits of money-driven interventions without matching operational discipline, accountability, technical redesign, and governance reforms.