Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has openly criticised the country’s electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), blaming them for being the weakest link in the nation’s power supply chain. He accused the firms of consistently failing to meet expectations, frustrating government efforts to improve the power sector.
While addressing stakeholders at a meeting in Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, Adelabu did not hold back his frustration, stating that “they have disappointed us in performance expectations.” He lamented the impact of the DisCos’ inefficiency, revealing that many of them, particularly in Northern Nigeria, remitted as little as 30% of what was expected from them in the past year.
According to him, the government is losing roughly N200 billion monthly due to power subsidies, a situation he described as financially unsustainable and a strain on public resources.
Adelabu pointed out that the country’s power distribution system is plagued by outdated equipment, rampant electricity theft, and a serious lack of investment in infrastructure. He noted that despite several government interventions and tariff increases aimed at improving service, the distribution side of the sector remains the most problematic.
“We need to get tough with the Discos, as they can easily frustrate all the gains we have made. Whatever we do in generation does not mean anything to consumers if it is frustrated at the distribution points,” Adelabu remarked.
The minister also recalled that when Nigeria’s power sector was privatised in 2013, the DisCos were expected to partner with technical experts, mostly foreign companies, to manage operations. However, those partnerships reportedly lasted only a short while before the foreign firms withdrew, leaving the DisCos to operate on their own.
Even though recent tariff adjustments boosted revenue across the sector from N1 trillion in 2023 to N1.7 trillion in 2024, Adelabu stressed that improvements had not translated into better service delivery at the distribution level.
One of the pressing challenges, according to the minister, is the persistent lack of electricity meters, which continues to fuel revenue loss and consumer distrust. To tackle this, the federal government rolled out the N700 billion Presidential Metering Initiative and secured a World Bank-supported programme targeting the provision of 4.3 million meters by 2025.
As part of this effort, 75,000 meters were installed in April 2024, with another 200,000 expected to follow in May.
