- Power Supply To Improve Within Two Weeks – FG
- Government says outages caused by maintenance on key gas infrastructure
- Nigeria targets 6000 megawatts generation before end of 2026
The Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Olowoniyi, has said Nigerians would begin to experience gradual improvement in electricity supply as maintenance work on a major gas pipeline nears completion.
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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Olowoniyi made this known on Thursday during an appearance on Arise Television, stating that full restoration of gas supply to power plants is expected within the next two weeks.
His remarks followed an earlier apology by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, over the persistent electricity outages affecting homes, businesses and industries across the country.
Defending the minister’s action, Olowoniyi said the apology reflected leadership rather than personal responsibility.
“I think, first of all, I’d like to start with the apology from the Honourable Minister, which we believe is all about taking leadership in the sector,” he said.
“Not necessarily directly his fault for the challenges that we have, but as the Minister of Power, he just took—it was the right leadership step to say, okay, I take ownership of this issue, and I’m going to prefer a solution that would ensure power supply comes back in the shortest available time.”
Olowoniyi attributed the recent electricity shortages to ongoing maintenance on a key gas pipeline supplying fuel to several power plants, noting that Nigeria’s electricity generation depends largely on gas.
“One of the major gas pipelines in Nigeria was undergoing maintenance, and gradually that process is being completed,” he said.
He explained that once gas pressure is fully restored, power plants would return to previous generation levels.
“We’re sure that within the next two weeks, full gas pressure will be back on the gas pipelines, and the power plants will be able to get enough gas at least to go back to their level of generation that they had in the last two to three months,” he said.
The adviser said early signs of improvement had already begun to emerge.
“I would already say that from yesterday, we would have gradually started to see some improvement as the pressure on the pipeline gradually starts to build up, and we will see continuous improvement over the next couple of weeks,” he added.
Earlier in Abuja, Adelabu said the outages were caused by factors beyond the government’s immediate control but assured Nigerians that supply would improve soon.
“I can tell you, with the committee that we have set up, and commitments from gas suppliers, and the timeline for repair of the gas pipelines, two weeks from now we should start seeing improvements in supply,” the minister said.
He also reiterated the Federal Government’s plan to increase electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026, describing the current situation as temporary.
