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According to the latest Africa Trade Barometer report by Standard Bank, Nigeria is losing an estimated $26 billion annually due to persistent power shortages. The report highlights that this figure does not even account for the $22 billion businesses spend on off-grid generators each year to mitigate power failures, further inflating operational costs for Nigerian businesses.
The report states that Nigerian businesses are forced to contend with a national grid that frequently collapses and struggles to meet a daily demand nearly four times the grid’s generation capacity. This instability results in frequent blackouts, which disrupt production, jeopardize goods that require stable environments, interfere with water and telecom services, and ultimately reduce business sales and revenue.
Electricity shortages were identified as one of the biggest challenges for business operations, not only in Nigeria but across 10 African markets, where power infrastructure remains a critical obstacle. “Blackouts cause production downtime, compromise product quality, disrupt water supply, and impact telecommunications, affecting payment systems,” the report notes, underscoring the strain power issues place on operations across the continent.
The release of this report coincides with recent incidents of the Nigerian national grid collapsing multiple times within a week, causing widespread blackouts. The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) attributed a recent outage to an explosion in a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station, which led to a cascade of power plant shutdowns. In response, the House of Representatives has announced plans to investigate these recurring national grid collapses.
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