Nigeria has been plunged into total darkness following the collapse of the national power grid, marking the eighth time this has occurred in 2024. This most recent incident comes as a major setback, being the third collapse within a single week.
A real-time account on X (formerly Twitter), “National Grid,” which provides live updates on power distribution to the country’s eleven distribution companies (DISCOS), confirmed that there is currently no supply across all the DISCOs. This widespread outage has led to a nationwide blackout.
The power grid collapse comes amid recent statements by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who had earlier asserted that the Nigerian power sector had improved significantly, with Nigerians no longer complaining about the high cost of fuel. These repeated power grid failures now seem to undermine the minister’s claims, raising concerns about the country’s ability to maintain a stable energy supply.
The recurring collapse of the national grid continues to highlight the critical challenges facing Nigeria’s power infrastructure. Despite several efforts and ongoing projects aimed at upgrading the national power network, such as the Mambilla power project and the expansion of the transmission network, the country remains vulnerable to grid failures, leaving millions of citizens without electricity.
This recent blackout has reignited discussions on the need for urgent reforms in Nigeria’s power sector to ensure reliability, efficiency, and sustainability in electricity supply.
