Nigeria’s Power Potential Within Reach, Path Forward Clear

Vincent Ozoude

When I look at Nigeria’s electricity sector, I do not see a story of scarcity. I see a story of extraordinary potential waiting to be unlocked. We are a nation blessed with more than 14,000 megawatts of hydropower potential, some 210 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas, and a solar endowment that few countries on earth can match.

We have, in abundance, every natural resource required to power one of the world’s most dynamic economies. The opportunity before us is to convert that endowment into reliable, everyday electricity for homes and businesses across the country.

Installed generation capacity in Nigeria today exceeds 13,000 megawatts. Closing the distance between the installed capacity and what reaches the end user or consumers is the defining task of our generation; and, I firmly believe, it is an achievable task.

The prize is enormous: lower costs for every manufacturer, every hospital, every small business; and a step-change in the quality of life for millions of Nigerians. The question before us is not whether Nigeria can generate power. It is how quickly we, working together, can build a system that delivers it reliably to the end user.

I believe the path is clear. And I say so not as an act of optimism, but from direct experience.

A Turnaround That Points The Way

When Transcorp Group took ownership of the Afam GenCo assets in 2021, the plant we now operate as Transafam Power Limited was generating roughly 48 megawatts against an installed capacity of 966 megawatts. The growth potential was there. What it needed was a quick recovery turnaround of the assets through disciplined ownership, patient capital investment, and the conviction that a long-dormant asset could be brought back to life by Nigerians, for Nigerians through strategic investment.

We rolled up our sleeves. We rehabilitated some plants, commissioned new fast-power aeroderivative plant and stayed focused on our ramp-up capacity recovery. In partnership with the federal government, we secured a power purchase agreement that placed the business on a firm commercial footing. Today, the plant is operated entirely by a Nigerian workforce, and together with our sister company, Transcorp Power Plc, we account for close to 20 percent of Nigeria’s installed thermal generation capacity.

When we faced gas constraints from 2024 to 2025, we responded with agility, relocating 120 megawatts of power to where the gas to operate was available, because resilient operators find a way to keep the lights on.

I share this not to celebrate a single company, but to make a wider point: where the right conditions are created, transformation is not only possible, it is repeatable. We successfully relocated four Trailer-Mounted mobile gas turbine plants and their auxiliaries, each rated 30 Megawatt of power, in total 120MW, several kilometres across states, an unprecedented move fully executed by Nigerians. That trajectory is now firmly upward: Transafam roughly doubled its generation through 2025, and we are targeting nearly 300 megawatts of generation in the near term. Encouragingly, the turnaround is being recognised well beyond our own walls; independent analysts at CardinalStone Securities recently raised their outlook on Transcorp, citing the operational transformation at Transafam as a central reason.

The Transafam story is proof that Nigeria’s power ambitions are well within reach. The opportunity now is to make that kind of turnaround the norm across the sector; that calls for progress at the level of the system, achieved hand in hand by industry and government.

What Unlocks The Next Phase Of Growth

First, gas-to-power is the single greatest opportunity available to us. A power plant is only as reliable as its fuel supply and strengthening the gas value chain would release significant latent capacity almost immediately.

Interestingly, deliberate national focus on domestic gas development is already creating momentum we can build on. Second, the generation and the grid must advance together. As we recover capacity, continued investment in transmission ensures that every additional megawatt reaches the communities that need it. Planning generation, transmission and distribution as one integrated system is how we turn capacity on paper into a reliable supply in practice.

Third, a financially healthy market is what attracts long-term capital at scale. For a generation company, certainty of payment is the foundation of every investment decision. Here, recent measures by the federal government are genuinely encouraging, from the Presidential Power Debt Programme, which has begun clearing longstanding obligations to generation companies, to the complementary mechanism addressing legacy gas debts and the move toward more cost-reflective tariffs.

These are confidence-building steps that strengthen the bankability of the entire sector and sustaining that momentum will unlock the investment Nigeria’s power ambitions require.

Fourth, we can be both pragmatic and forward-looking about our energy mix. Gas will remain the backbone of Africa’s electricity supply for years to come, and we should develop it with conviction as both a transition and a destination fuel. At the same time, renewables and cleaner, more efficient sources have a growing and complementary role to play. The resilient energy system of the future will be a blended one, and Nigeria is wellpositioned to build it.

Africapitalism: a partnership for prosperity

To sum up all of this is a question of how we deliver. My Group Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, has spent more than a decade advancing a simple but powerful idea: that Africa’s transformation will be driven by Africa’s own private sector, through long-term investment that creates both economic prosperity and social wealth. Power is where that philosophy is most visibly tested, because it demands patient capital, technical depth and a long horizon. It is also where the social return is greatest. Every megawatt restored is a clinic that stays open, a leap in the small and medium scale enterprise, child who studies not in the dark, a business that hires another hand, a home assured of basic energy needs and a growing economy.

Crucially, Africapitalism is a model of partnership, not a substitute for it.  Government is the indispensable enabler of this story. By providing a stable, long-term policy environment, it gives private operators the confidence to invest for the long term. When the public and private sectors pull together, each playing to their strengths, we achieve outcomes neither could deliver alone. The progress already underway is proof of what that partnership can accomplish.

In July, I will join fellow leaders at NOG Energy Week in Abuja to discuss exactly this: how we re-engineer Africa’s power market and build energy systems our people can rely on. I will bring to that conversation a conviction grounded in evidence, that reliability is within reach, that indigenous operators can deliver it, and that, alongside committed policymakers, the structural improvements required are well understood and entirely achievable.

At Transcorp, we are unequivocal about our mission to improve lives and transform communities. We do not measure our work only in megawatts, but in the lives those megawatts change. Nigeria’s potential has never been in doubt. With the right investment, the right partnerships and shared resolve, this is the generation that realises it, and powers Africa’s transformation in the process.

Engr. Ozoude writes from Afam, Rivers State. He is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Transafam Power Limited, one of the power subsidiaries of Transnational Corporation Plc, Africa’s leading, listed conglomerate with strategic investments in power, hospitality and energy.