Powering Nigeria

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1:09It's Africa's most populated country and one of its biggest economies. But according to the latest figures, over 85 million people here in Nigeria have no access to electricity, while millions more struggle to keep the lights on. Right now, Now I'm in Lagos and I tell you the power situation here, I wouldn't give it a pass mark. We have like 12 hours in a day at the stretch. Currently, I don't even have power. I'm powering my devices right now on a generator set. That has been going on for the past two hours. People have increasingly taken the lead and generating their own power.

1:47Samuel Okocha:There's a lot of patronage for home solar systems. Nigeria is in the tropical zone. God has blessed us with good sunshine. So we have the resources. If the government can help in reducing the prices of the solar, I think it will go a long way to help people like us. But is the constant battle to maintain a regular and sustainable supply hampering this country's progress? This is the documentary Powering Nigeria from the BBC World Service.

2:23Hi, I'm Samuel Okocha, a journalist based in Abuja in central Nigeria. For anyone living here, power, or often the lack of it, is a daily preoccupation. It shapes how we live, how we work, and how we connect. According to the World Bank, Nigeria has the largest electricity access deficit in the world. Abdulaziz Fagi is their project leader for energy in Nigeria. I describe it to people as a continent within a continent. It's a population of close to 220, 230, depending on the estimates, million people, of which upwards of 85, 86 million people don't have access to electricity. So you're talking about a massive gap in access to a basic fundamental service that allows teachers to teach, hospitals to operate, and businesses to run.

3:22So according to the World Bank's latest energy progress report, that's four in ten people here in Nigeria who have no access to the power supply. For the bottom 40 percent of the population, it's mostly rural, the access rate is about 30%. In urban areas, it's close to 80%. So it's quite heavily tilted towards rural areas where it's difficult to extend the grid, sometimes because of how the population is spread out. Sometimes there are security issues, especially in northern Nigeria. And so, you know, you have these different characteristics of the country that create an uneven spread of this access.

4:08To have no access to power in Nigeria means living without predictable lights, refrigeration or digital connection. It's boiling water over charcoal, starting by torch lights and losing income when the generator fails. It's not just inconvenience, it's exclusion from the infrastructure of modern life. The rest of the people who have access to electricity in Nigeria actually still suffer from reliable access. So they have access, but that access could be intermittent. Like throughout the day, there are what's called load shedding that power basically has to be curtailed because of availability of power generation sources or some bottlenecks in the grid infrastructure that's not able to carry that electricity to the individual households and consumers.

5:00And so it's rare that you will see 24-hour supply for electricity and people have to kind of back up their electricity that they get from the grid through mostly diesel and or petroleum fire generators. Everyone in Nigeria has grown up struggling with electricity and everyone has a story to tell. My name is Prince Adetunja DIA, energy lawyer. I specialize in the Nigerian electricity market. I grew up in the rural community. Naturally, they're underserved. They didn't have power. So I grew up basically in darkness, really, to be honest. I remember that I had to sometimes read and do schoolwork with candle and lamps.

5:44Wind the clock forward a generation, a Nigerian economist and climate expert, Dr. Lottana Emediego, grew up in Lagos in the early 2000s.

5:54Samuel Okocha:We used to have regular power courts. I remember vividly well when the light goes off, everybody kind of goes down. But when it comes up again, everybody's so happy. You hear this particular phrase known as UpNepa. Nepa used to be the name of the government-owned electricity company. These days are better. Kids don't know what is UpNepa anymore because lately, I mean, services are slightly improved. So growing up, I think we had that notion that electricity was kind of luxurious. Sometimes you could live in an area for a whole week. Sometimes going for a month, you may not even get an aorta of light.

6:32Samuel Okocha:So when it comes, it's like a Christmas for everyone. So when they restore electricity, everyone praises them and says, Up Nepal! It's like you're saying, Up Nigeria, you know, during the World Cup. It's a common balance that we all use to kind of show excitement that the light is back and life can continue. And I tell you, although Nepal has since ceased to exist, people still say, Up Nepal, any time the power comes on. Emeka Emmanuel Oguze is a professor of electrochemistry and material science at the Federal University of Technology in Oweri in southeastern Nigeria. Emeka was born in the early 70s and says he's witnessed a huge decline in the power supply over his lifetime.

7:18Samuel Okocha:When I was younger, it was quite better. It was more or less stable once in a while you have the power cuts, but now it's a lot worse. It's a lot worse because the grid infrastructure did not develop or did not grow as fast as the population, and did not grow as fast as the economic activities have grown over time. Across Nigeria, power courts aren't just inconvenient. They are constant, unpredictable, and deeply disruptive. From hospitals running on diesel to students studying by rechargeable lamps, the daily reality is one of improvisation, exhaustion and economic loss. When I worked in Lagos, the constant roar of generators from neighboring flats made it feel like I was living inside a factory.

8:11As a journalist trying to record from home, it was almost impossible to concentrate. Now I'm in Abuja, where things are quieter, but the power still cuts out at critical times, forcing me to work from cafes, co-working spaces and even hotels. It's exhausting, and it adds real cost to every story I try to tell.

8:45But the government insists improvements are being made. In fact, in April, Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu claimed 150 million Nigerians do now have access to adequate electricity. There's a constant debate about the word adequate, but energy lawyer Prince Adetunji Adeye says there's been some progress. Before the privatization, Nigeria was doing an average of 3 ,000 to 4 ,000 megawatts in generation and distributing just about that as well. But since then, we have a peak of 6 ,003 megawatts. This is our first queue of 2025. and our evacuation of that has also increased to about 5 ,801 megawatts.

9:35We are, of course, still very far from the national daily need or demand of about 20 ,000 megawatts, but at least we can say since 2005, the generation capacity in the country has increased up to 13 ,000 megawatts, even though we averagely do less of that monthly. There was a flicker of hope earlier this year when the national grid held steady for several months, something the minister was keen to boast about.

10:07Samuel Okocha:We experienced a number of grid disturbances towards the end of last year. But since January up to today, four months into the new year, we have not seen any major disturbance to the grid. And I can assure you we'll do everything possible to maintain and sustain the current scenario. But by September, the familiar pattern of collapse had returned, plunging millions back into darkness. And the Minister of Power has acknowledged persistent distribution failures and pledged sweeping reforms, including updates to the national grid. The government's hope now lies in a new structural shift, one they believe could finally give regions the autonomy to deliver more reliable power.

10:55What has built up over the years, a centralized system, power generation and laws being generated in remote areas and then transmitted over long distances. Sam Onuigbo, from Nigeria's ruling the All Progressives Congress, or APC as it's known.

11:19Samuel Okocha:This has created a problem because the infrastructure used for these popoles has become some outdated, some destroyed, some vandalized, and in the process, it created a problem. The population has grown so rapidly that these infrastructures can no longer cope as we move forward. Sam Onwibbe was one of the main advocates behind the Electricity Act of 2023, which laid the legal foundation for decentralizing power and allowing states to take control of their own electricity markets. States have the powers to pass laws on electricity generation, transmission, distribution without any interference from anybody.

12:15Samuel Okocha:So these bottlenecks that I have mentioned are rapidly being taken care of. This problem of over-centralization, of power distribution, even when they are generated in different localities or different states, that now is being solved. Because as we speak, 12 states out of 36 have already commenced the process. But as Nigerian households adopt more technology, from TVs and microwaves to air conditioners, the strain on the grid intensifies. What was once a single socket now powers a dozen devices. From 2020 to 2024, about 5 million new connections were added. Approximately 5 person per household, that's about 25 million people.

13:09Now the population growth at the same period was 29 million people. So you have already a 4 million person access deficit. So the grid, despite investments and continued investments in the sector, cannot keep up with that population.

13:30Here in Karu, an area on the outskirts of Abuja, there is a busy mix of small businesses. and they're all struggling with the cost of living. So how do they navigate the power problems? Susan Ojo is a trader selling a wide range of consumables from soft drinks to donuts. And today she's at a shop where a refrigerator is also stationed for the drinks she sells. Talking about the electricity supply in this vicinity because I do business just very close to my house here. It's quite commendable. even if most times we don't get to see the light of them. But at least we do have light like, let's just say, 12 hours in a day at the stretch compared to other times when the transformer gets burnt and the rest of it.

14:19Could you shed a little light on that? Oftentimes, the transformer gets blown off. That's like a month or two months ago. All of a sudden, we just heard a very big bang. It took them almost like close to a week for them to fix it. I'm curious, do you think things have improved in recent years or got worse? It has improved, I have to tell you the truth. Because there was a time that was year 216. I think for over three months Odera, but we didn't have light. So on a particular day, that was January 15th Odera, but I can't forget that day. All of a sudden we saw light. So I think from then there have been stable lights.

14:56Susan Ojo staying positive and proving traditional Nigerian resilience.

15:07I am Samuel Okocha and you're listening to the documentary Powering Nigeria from the BBC World Service.

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17:26Generators have become a necessity for just about everyone. The World Bank's project leader for energy in Nigeria, Abdulaziz Fagi again. Even for someone who lives in Abuja, the capital, which has great infrastructure, you still see, on a daily basis, power cuts. I mean, every day I'm fortunate to live somewhere where I do have a generator that kicks in, but I experience power cuts four or five times a day, and that gets restored with the generator until the grid comes back. So you see that there's no differentiation across the country when it comes to having to face these kinds of challenges.

18:09Generators are not just a backup plan. there how millions survive, including my barber, Isaac Shedrack, was a shop right in the heart of Karu. I'm in need of a dream, so I popped in to see him. So basically, the generator gives your customers confidence that whether there is power or not, they know that they will have a haircut when they come to your place.

18:33Samuel Okocha:Sure, certainly. Have you ever lost a customer while he or she is having a haircut because the power went out and they couldn't wait. Honestly, I have lost customers. It happens. Some customers are not patient to wait for you. That's serious. Do you share power or support with nearby shops during outages? I share with my neighbor. She sells food. And indeed, generator sharing has become a quiet pact of survival right across Nigeria. It's a case of fuel pooled, hours rationed and noise endured together. There's about seven to ten times the amount of diesel and or fuel generators that are currently supplying the demand in the country above the grid.

19:25So that's a large amount of reliance on non-grid electricity to become self-sufficient, let's say. But of course that's not sustainable because the gensets are noisy, but they're also highly polluting and they're actually more expensive. In Nigeria, electricity is paid for in bands from A to E, where the more you pay, the more reliable your supply is meant to be. My name is Mr. Omosigo Joseph and I'm 32 years old. I'm a realtor. I live within the city called Kauru Extension, Abuja. What do you think about the cost of electricity?

20:32Some persons using band C may have light more than people that are using band A, so it becomes not a fair game anymore. And you are paying more for the electricity that you might not even be getting. Do you know the band you are in? We are on band B, yeah. And some persons are paying tariff of band A, yeah. While some are paying tariff of band C, yeah. So it's not a balanced equation. I think the system needs to be worked on and checked properly. And the Minister for Power appears to be listening to Joseph's concerns. The government has signalled plans to scrap the ban system within three years, with possible interim steps like merging bans B and C, reshaping Berlin in the meantime.

21:24It's not just a matter of keeping the lights on at home or the generators running to fuel shops. Power cuts can also pose major problems for Nigeria's hospitals. Dr. Justice Igbiti is a senior registrar in gastroenterology at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital in Gwagolada. He's been practicing for nearly 15 years and says he's witnessed some scary moments. We've had cases where you're doing a surgery, for example, and then the power goes out. I'm a gastroenterologist, so I do lots of endoscopies, colonoscopies, and then the power goes out and your scope is inside the person's gut. and you can't really do anything because you probably need to take out a small polyp or something.

22:11People have performed surgeries in rural areas using the most crude sources of illumination. They love the heavy machinaries like life support and all tend to be dependent on the constant supply of power. So this has made it not really readily available everywhere because you need the MRIs, for example, need a constant supply. The hospital where Justice works in Abuja is run by a public-private partnership. And like most hospitals in Nigeria, they pay for Band A, the highest electricity tariff, because it gives them some assurances they will get sustainable power. There's always a backup plan.

22:53The backup plan has to do with having heavy GT generators. Now, the generators are usually on standby, ready to kick up the momentous sense of a break or a break in transmission. To make sure that that gap doesn't affect the care of the patients, we've invested in solar panels and inverters and UPS systems. So that most of the machinaries are converted to UPS systems that have like a temporary power supply to those equipment waiting for the generator to kick on. Then the illumination usually is supplied by solar panels. And then you have the backup generators. And it's always not just one. It's always a lot of backup generators.

23:32The UPS system that Dr Justice Igbiti refers to stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply, a backup system that keeps critical hospital equipment running without interruption, even during grid failures or while generators power up. The cost of fear has caused a lot of challenges for smaller hospitals who now tend to only turn on those generators when they have critical need. But the use of solar power you heard about there in hospitals only tells part of the story. In fact, across Nigeria, a grassroots revolution in solar power is reshaping daily life as homes, schools and small businesses turn to the sun to escape the great's failures.

24:24These are initiatives now being supported by the World Bank, which has pledged hundreds of millions to accelerate solar access nationwide. It's kind of a testament to Nigerian ingenuity and can-do attitude. You know, when they see something that requires a lot of coordination, a lot of capital investment, a lot of time to develop, they find ways to come up with solutions like that. These businesses find that there are millions of people who don't have access, who are willing to pay because obviously the alternative is a generator that costs and pollutes and is noisy. And so they go to those communities entirely on their own and they set up the mini grid and they agree on a tariff.

25:09The community pays. And in fact, the payment rate is remarkably high. Businesses and investors have been telling us that people are disciplined and are paying. And then essentially those developers or those private developers come to the World Bank and essentially seek that subsidy. Emeka Emmanuel Oguzie leads the Africa Center of Excellence in Future Energies. He and his team at the Federal University of Technology in Oweri are among the millions of enthusiastic adopters of solar power here in Nigeria. We have an off-grid system in the centre where I am, so we run primarily on solar power. In the offices, we have solar systems so that we can keep working even when the power is not available.

25:57Samuel Okocha:And when the sun is not so high and the batteries get low, then we have to put on the generators. So Nigerians are now harnessing their most abundant natural resource, sunlight at scale. but the panels themselves are almost entirely imported, mainly from China. We are the continent with the least power available to access in spite of this abundance of solar energy. We have in our center now, we have installed the capacity to do a lot of research and scale up. I believe strongly that solar cell technologies like perovskite solar cells could actually hold the key to Nigeria's self-reliance. And we have a project on that already.