No immediate plan to increase electricity tariff — Tegbe

The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has revealed that there is no immediate plan by the Federal Government to increase electricity tariffs, saying the government is committed to providing regular power supply to Nigerians.

Tegbe, who stated this at a media briefing to mark his 100 days on Monday in Abuja, from June 8 to September 16, 2026, listed what he described as modest but measurable improvements across the power sector.

The minister stated that his administration inherited electricity infrastructure that is over 40 years old and had focused its early efforts on stabilising the system rather than pursuing new large-scale projects.

He revealed that the diagnosis carried out and the onset of his tenure exposed weaknesses across the entire electricity value chain, covering gas supply constraints, ageing generation fleet, vandalised transmission infrastructure and distribution losses of between 30 and 40 per cent.

Tegbe said, “This government, government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, where I’m the Minister of Power, has no immediate plan to increase tariffs. Anybody going around modifying videos and sending things around to insinuate that we are planning to increase tariffs, honestly speaking, is not true.

“Let me tell Nigerians today that this government has no plan to increase tariffs, and I’m saying it in my capacity as Minister of Power. Let me categorically state, and this is not a political statement, we have no plan to increase electricity tariffs.”

Despite the challenges bedevilling the power sector, the minister listed major achievements which included the restoration of the 375 megawatt Alaoji power plant to the national grid after three years offline, while new transformers commissioned in Lagos and Abuja had unlocked more than 900 megawatts of additional transmission capacity.

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Tegbe said that national generation and transmission had exceeded 5,000 megawatts in recent weeks, compared with a range of 3,700 megawatts to 4,700 megawatts before June, with a peak of 5,330 megawatts recorded in August and September.

He also announced the launch of the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO), which, according to him, would professionally manage publicly financed renewable energy assets and aims to raise 3 trillion naira in the coming years.

He stated that the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and its partners had completed 62 solar and mini-grid installations across 30 states, providing about 43.6 megawatts of solar capacity and over 41,000 new connections, benefiting more than 208,000 people.

The minister, while speaking on the financial side, said about N1.23 trillion had been raised toward settling the sector’s debt backlog, which was part of a wider effort to address N3.3 trillion in outstanding obligations, adding that interventions targeting energy theft along the Ikorodu-Sagamu corridor had blocked an estimated N120 billion in annual revenue leakage.

He said about 350,000 meters were installed during the first 100 days, bringing the number of installed meters to just over one million as of August.

Tegbe, however, confirmed that the next phase of work would focus on stabilising the Lagos, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano transmission corridors, with the target to develop a super grid, improving utilisation of existing assets as well as preparing infrastructure for future demand.