Jumoke Adelabu – Lagos
Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapsed on Friday morning, plunging Africa’s most populous country into darkness for the first time in 2026 and once again highlighting the fragility of its power infrastructure.
The system failure occurred at about 11:40 a.m. local time, according to data obtained by our reporter.
A review of the national distribution load profile at 1 p.m. showed zero load across all electricity distribution companies (DisCos), including those serving Abuja, Eko, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Yola.
The outage followed a period of strong electricity demand in major cities. Before the collapse, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company was receiving 639 megawatts, while Ikeja Electric had a load of 630 megawatts.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), which manages the national grid, has yet to disclose the cause of the failure. Although restoration efforts are underway, no timeline has been given for full recovery. Attempts to reach NISO for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.
Friday’s incident continues a troubling pattern of instability in Nigeria’s power sector. In 2024 alone, the grid collapsed nine times, disrupting businesses, hospitals, and households across the country of more than 200 million people—many of whom already endure chronic electricity shortages even when the grid is functioning.
Nigeria produces only a fraction of the electricity required to meet the needs of its population and economy. Even at peak performance, national generation typically ranges between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts—well below the estimated 30,000 megawatts needed for adequate supply.
As a result, businesses and higher-income households depend heavily on diesel and petrol generators, driving up costs and worsening environmental pollution.
Although the power sector was partially privatised more than a decade ago—with generation and distribution transferred to private operators—transmission remains under government control through NISO. Critics argue that the transmission network is the system’s weakest link, pointing to ageing infrastructure, poor maintenance, and chronic underinvestment.
