Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe
The federal government has declared a target of 6,500 megawatts of electricity supply by the end of December, with a further target of 8,000 megawatts by 2027, as it unveiled the Renewable and Asset Management Company (RAMCO), a new institution charged with managing the country’s renewable power infrastructure.
The minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, who disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the country’s current generation capacity stood at approximately 5,000 megawatts.
He said the ministry was working to close that gap through grid stabilisation efforts, asset optimisation and renewed investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure.
“We’re struggling to wheel 5,000 megawatts today, and my target is that by the end of this year, we will conveniently be wheeling 6,500 megawatts. We will be wheeling conveniently 8,000 megawatts, by the end of next year, Tegbe said.”
Tegbe said RAMCO would be central to the government’s push to raise generation and improve reliability, describing its establishment as a shift from the traditional model of acquiring and abidndoning public power assets to one built on professional stewardship, governance and measurable performance.
Tegbe“RAMCO is not going to be measured by how many megawatts it delivers, but the reliability of the delivery and the sustainability of that delivery,” he said, adding that the company’s success would ultimately be judged by how many assets remained operational, rather than the size of its portfolio.
The minister said Nigeria had, for too long, operated an unbalanced power sector, rich in energy resources and installed infrastructure, yet poor in the availability of dependable electricity.
He said RAMCO was designed to correct that imbalance by treating public power assets as national investments whose value must be preserved, rather than infrastructure to be commissioned and left unattended.
According to him, the ministry had identified three priority corridors for grid stabilisation: the Lagos axis, the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano corridor, and the Enugu-Onitsha axis.
He said technical audits were ongoing across these corridors to assess the condition of towers, substations and other installations, some of which had remained in service for more than four decades, ahead of a planned replacement of ageing equipment.
The minister said the government was also addressing liquidity challenges within the sector, including the accumulated debt burden, through a framework for sustainable repayment and the closure of tariff shortfalls that have long undermined investment in the sector.
On the scope of RAMCO’s operations, Tegbe said the company’s mandate would not be limited to renewable energy alone, but would eventually extend across the entire grid.
