The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has disclosed that Nigeria’s power generation rose by 2,000 megawatts within two years of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration. Adelabu made this declaration yesterday during a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), led by its President, Margret Oguntala. Nigeria has increased its electricity generation capacity by 2,000 megawatts (MW) in just two years, an incredible success that would have taken nearly 40 years to attain. The Minister stated that between 1984 and 2022, Nigeria’s generation capacity grew from 2,000MW to 4,000MW. However, under the administration of President Bola Tinubu, the country has now reached 6,003MW, reflecting a renewed commitment to energizing the power sector.
Adelabu admits the ongoing challenges in the power sector but describes the increase as a significant breakthrough and urges Nigerian engineers to play a more proactive role in resolving the country’s energy crisis.
He challenged the NSE to reflect on why, despite the vast pool of engineering expertise in the country, grid collapses and infrastructure failures still occur.
“The NSE was founded in 1958—67 years ago—and yet we are still experiencing grid collapses. We have many engineers in Nigeria, so why is our power infrastructure still in this state? The answer is that something must change.” He said.
Speaking further, the Minister called for closer collaboration between the NSE and the Federal Ministry of Power, stressing the importance of technical advisory support and mentorship programs to expand the efficiency of the sector, while encouraging the training of young engineers to ensure the long-term sustainability of power generation and distribution.
“The Power Ministry and the NSE are naturally linked, but has this relationship translated into tangible benefits for our power infrastructure? We must change that,” Adelabu concluded.
