KEY POINTS
- TCN says Nigeria’s grid can transmit more power than has ever been generated and supplied.
- TCN raised wheeling capacity from 7,000MW to 8,700MW using $1.4 billion in development financing.
- TCN boss calls for stronger laws against vandalism, cost-reflective tariffs and political will.
Nigeria’s national grid is not the problem. That is the message the Transmission Company of Nigeria delivered to lawmakers this week.
Sule Abdulaziz, managing director and chief executive of TCN, told the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Probe of Power Sector Reforms and Expenditure that the transmission network has outgrown the electricity being fed into it. The admission, made at a four-day parliamentary stakeholders summit in Lagos, reframes the country’s electricity problem in a way that is both clarifying and damning.
Nigeria’s installed generation capacity stands at 13,625 megawatts. The highest power ever generated and delivered to the national grid was 5,801.84MW, achieved on March 4, 2025. On that same day, the grid recorded its highest-ever daily energy delivery of 128,370.75 megawatt-hours. TCN’s current wheeling capacity sits at 8,700MW.
“The national grid can currently transmit significantly more power than has ever been generated and supplied to it,” Abdulaziz said. “TCN has consistently wheeled all available generation, demonstrating that the transmission network is ready to support higher levels of electricity delivery.”
How TCN got here and what it still needs
The company expanded Nigeria’s bulk power transmission capacity from approximately 7,000MW to 8,700MW through strategic investments backed by the federal government and development partners. That represents an additional 1,700MW of transmission headroom. Between January 2024 and November 2025, TCN commissioned 82 transformers, adding approximately 8,500MVA of transformation capacity to the grid.
Abdulaziz said TCN has mobilised more than $1.4 billion in development financing from international partners including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the French Development Agency. The company is also deploying a nationwide Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system to improve real-time grid monitoring and support smart-grid operations.
Despite those gains, Abdulaziz was direct about what continues to hold the sector back. Vandalism and sabotage of transmission infrastructure remain a persistent threat. Encroachment on transmission rights-of-way complicates maintenance. Foreign exchange pressures and land acquisition delays slow project execution.
The political will question
Abdulaziz did not mince words on the deeper challenge. He said the solutions to Nigeria’s electricity problems are already known. What is missing is the will to act on them.
“What is required now is sustained political will, coordinated action and effective implementation of existing plans, laws and partnerships,” he said. He called for tougher legal sanctions against infrastructure vandalism, a nationally consistent framework for protecting transmission rights-of-way and a financially viable electricity market built on cost-reflective tariffs and stronger payment discipline.
“The long-term sustainability of the sector depends on a financially viable electricity market,” he said. “Supported by cost-reflective tariffs, improved revenue collection, stronger payment discipline and a stable regulatory environment that encourages investment.”
