Power Supply Near Zero as National Grid Suffers Another Collapse

Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapsed on Monday afternoon, plunging much of the country into near-total darkness and leaving power supply at critically low levels nationwide.

The system failure occurred around midday on Monday, and by early evening had reduced distribution load to a fraction of normal operating levels, highlighting persistent vulnerabilities in the country’s power infrastructure.

Data from electricity distribution companies showed that only the Ibadan and Abuja distribution networks were receiving limited power, with 30 megawatts (MW) and 20 MW respectively, while all other operators, including those in major cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Kano and Enugu, registered zero megawatts during the outage.

Overall nationwide distribution stood at just 50 MW, far below what is required to sustain meaningful electricity supply for households, businesses and critical services.

The near blackout follows repeated grid failures in recent years, with industry analysts attributing the recurring collapses to ageing infrastructure, frequent technical faults, transmission bottlenecks and insufficient maintenance across the power value chain.

The blackout disrupted electricity supply across much of the country, leaving homes, commercial establishments and public facilities without adequate power.

The latest collapse adds to mounting pressure on authorities to accelerate infrastructure investment and address systemic challenges that have repeatedly undermined grid reliability, particularly as Nigeria’s economy remains heavily constrained by unstable power provision.

Efforts to restore the grid were reported to be underway by the Nigerian National Grid operator on Monday evening.