Nigerians kick as Tinubu’s minister claims 40% of Nigerians enjoy 20-hour electricity supply

Consumers have kicked against the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu’s claims that 40 percent of electricity consumers in Nigeria enjoyed 20 hours of uninterrupted power supply.

The Minister disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, attributing the improvement in power supply to the government’s efforts.

According to him, Nigeria’s electricity generation has hit 5,500 megawatts.

“The major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40 percent of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation. You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further”, Adelabu stated.

He added “The electricity that we enjoy today is not by accident. It’s because of all these transformers and mobile substations that we commissioned and installed.

However, Adelabu’s claim did not go down well with electricity consumers in Nigeria who still grapple with adequate power supply.

The Electricity Consumer Protection Advocacy Centre Executive Director, Pricewill Okorie in a statement described Adelabu’s claim as laughable.

“Where are the reports from the 36 states? You have 774 Local Governments in Nigeria, if you take 40 percent of the population of citizens in these Local Governments, you’ll know what the data is.”

This comes as Nigeria with a N250,000 million population still grapples with 5000mw of electricity after decades of privatisation.

In April 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission approved a 240 percent electricity tariff hike for Band A electricity consumers getting 20 to 22 hours of power supply.

The development has further worsened the high energy costs in Nigeria alongside the increased costs of Premium Motor Spirit(Petrol) and Automotive Gas Oil(Diesel).