Subsidy Savings: Governors and Nigeria’s Power Problems (5)

SOStainabilityWeekly

Edited by Oke Epia, E-mail: sostainability01@gmail.com  | WhatsApp: +234 8034000706

Trends and Threads

The series on governors and subsidy savings continues with Enugu, Rivers, Adamawa, Nassarawa, Sokoto, and Ondo states. While there are several other areas of governance and service delivery that savings from the removal of petrol subsidies can be deployed, this page focuses on the power sector and aligns efforts with the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 at the subnational level.  Access to and affordability of electricity has remained a perennial challenge in Nigeria and the deregulation of the power sector via a constitutional amendment in 2023 levels the ground for government at the national and state levels to generate, transmit and distribute electricity to citizens. Last week, this page focused on Kwara, Edo, Borno, Osun, Kebbi, and Anambra states. States that have been previously profiled are Abia, Ekiti, Kaduna, Taraba, Bayelsa, and Kogi. Others are Zamfara, Oyo, Cross River, Benue, Ebonyi, and Yobe. Last week, the focus was on Ogun, Niger, Enugu, Gombe, Delta, and Kano States.

The Judicious use of public resources can help solve Nigeria’s power problems and unlock productivity for industries, small and medium-scale businesses, households, and individuals who require regular, affordable, and cleaner supply of electricity to power production.

This series uses key metrics including legal framework, regulatory readiness, and evidence of project pipelines to measure performance in the power sector. The graphical illustrations provide summary answers to the same questions for the six states under review this week.

This light-touch assessment precedes a more detailed reporting and documentation of power access, affordability, and clean energy in the states by SOStainability’s SDG7 industry report and success stories.