Nigeria’s Transmission Company (TCN) has revealed that it supplies electricity to Togo, Benin, and Niger on a 24-hour basis, and these countries pay for the power they receive.
TCN Managing Director/CEO, Sule Abdulaziz, made this disclosure on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
“We supply Togo, we supply Benin and Niger. Yes, they get power from Nigeria on a 24-hour basis and they are paying,” Abdulaziz said.
However, the story is different in Nigeria, where power supply remains unstable. Abdulaziz explained that while some Nigerians enjoy 24-hour electricity, others do not.
“Nigerians are getting 24-hour electricity supply; not everybody. Those people in Band A. You will see that they get a 20-22 hour power supply. Some Nigerians are getting 24 hours. Every distribution company has Band A and that is their priority.”
Abdulaziz attributed Nigeria’s power sector woes to years of neglect. “For so many years in this country that sector has been neglected. Most of the equipment we use is 50 years or 40 years old. So it is not possible for those infrastructure to work perfectly.”
The Explainer learned, to tackle the issue of incessant grid collapse, TCN is implementing a backup system funded by the World Bank.
“We are doing the SCADA system for the whole network and it is funded by the World Bank, and the project will take two years to be completed, and now, we have done 70 per cent of the project,” Abdulaziz said.
He added, “the honourable minister is now working with the presidency to have that approval. This is what we call the super grid. By the time we have it, even if there is a fault in one transmission line, you can switch to the one so that we have an alternative.”
Nigeria’s power sector has faced numerous challenges, including electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and significant power sector planning shortfalls.
The federal government privatized power generation and 11 distribution companies in 2013, retaining ownership of the transmission company.
The latest grid collapse was the third in a week, prompting Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to describe it as “a national shame” and a failure of leadership and policy implementation.
