Key Points
-
Nigeria’s power grid collapse triggered another nationwide blackout.
-
Restoration is ongoing but grid stability remains uncertain.
-
Frequent outages strain businesses, households, and investor confidence.
Late on Sunday, Nigeria’s weak power grid went down again across the country, leaving parts of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano in the dark. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which is run by Sule Abdulaziz, the Managing Director, said that work was being done to restore power and that engineers were working through the night to do so.
According to a report by reuters, the most recent event is just one more in a long line of grid failures in Africa’s most populous country. The network is stretched thin because of years of underinvestment, poor maintenance, and rising demand.
Nigerians were angry because homes, businesses, and hospitals were all trying to get backup power at the same time. Fuel prices and inflation were already high.
Nigeria’s power grid goes down again because the system is under too much stress
TCN officials said that “system disturbances” on the transmission network caused the collapse, but they didn’t give any more details right away. Independent experts, such as Dolapo Oni of Ecobank Research, said that a mix of old infrastructure, bad communication between distribution companies, and not enough generation capacity were to blame.
Data from energy watchdogs show that the national grid has failed at least four times in 2025, including the collapse on Sunday. Every time the power goes out, it costs a lot of money. For example, Dangote Cement and Innoson Motors have to use expensive diesel generators.
Power grid restoration is happening in major cities
As of Monday morning, TCN said that some areas of Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu, and Kano had been partially restored. Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu told people that full supply would come back soon and promised to look into what caused the problems in the first place.
Ikeja Electric, led by CEO Folake Soetan, and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, led by Christopher Ezeafulukwe, both posted updates on social media. They said that things were getting better slowly but warned that things would not be stable until the system was completely stable.
International observers say that Nigeria’s repeated power outages make it harder for the country to get foreign investment in its energy sector. Even though it is Africa’s biggest oil producer and has a lot of natural gas, the country only makes less than 5,000 megawatts for more than 200 million people.
People are getting more and more angry about the power grid failing over and over again
Many Nigerians see the power outages as a sign of bigger problems with inefficiency and poor oversight. Chika Okoye, a Lagos-based businesswoman who spends more than half of her monthly budget on fuel for generators, said, “We can’t keep living like this.”
Economists like Bismarck Rewane say that the high cost of unreliable power slows down GDP growth and makes businesses less competitive in all areas, from textiles to technology. The most recent blackout, they say, could put even more pressure on President Bola Tinubu’s government to speed up reforms in the electricity sector that have been put off for a long time.
