Nigeria is seeking a $2 billion loan from China’s Export-Import Bank to build a new “super grid,” a massive transmission network aimed at finally ending the country’s decades-long power nightmare.
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, confirmed that the project has already received approval from the Federal Executive Council, adding that negotiations with China’s Eximbank are “advancing.”
“It’s part of plans to decentralise power generation in Nigeria and get the heavy commercial users that left the power grid because of its unreliability to return,” Adelabu said at an economic summit in Abuja.
The new grid, according to him, will stretch across Nigeria’s eastern and western industrial corridors — regions home to major factories and large-scale businesses crippled by poor electricity supply.
Despite generating about 13,000 megawatts of power, Nigeria’s ageing transmission network can only handle roughly one-third of that capacity, often collapsing and leaving millions in darkness.
By comparison, South Africa, with just a quarter of Nigeria’s population, has more than 70,000 megawatts of installed capacity.
Experts say the planned “super grid” could help stabilise power distribution, revive industrial productivity, and reduce the nation’s costly dependence on diesel generators.
The initiative falls under President Bola Tinubu’s sweeping economic reform agenda, which has already seen the removal of fuel subsidies, tax overhauls, and significant shifts in the energy sector.
As part of those reforms, electricity companies were allowed to hike tariffs for customers with consistent supply — a move Adelabu said increased revenues by 70 percent in 2024.
He added that the sector’s earnings are projected to rise another 41 percent this year to ₦2.4 trillion (about $1.6 billion).
