Ekeomah Atuonwu
Nigeria’s national electricity grid has failed for the second time in a month, according to the federal ministry of power, leaving parts of the country without power, including the capital Abuja and Africa’s largest city, Lagos.
According to the power ministry, the outage occurred overnight. It did not disclose when the grid that serves approximately 117 million people, would be operational again.
A “detailed investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the recurring grid failure is ongoing,” according to the ministry, as is the process of restoring supply.
While power outages are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, a total system failure is not.
Nigeria has an installed capacity of 12,500 megawatts but only produces a quarter of that on a good day, forcing many Nigerians and businesses to rely on diesel-powered generators. Since the beginning of the year, diesel prices have more than doubled.
Businesses frequently cite the country’s sclerotic power grid and precarious energy supply as a major impediment to growth in Africa’s most populous country.
