Nigeria Loses $26Bn Yearly to Power Shortages — Report

Nigeria loses an estimated $26 billion yearly to power failures, according to the latest Africa Trade Barometer report which said the cost excludes spending on off-grid generators.

“Economic losses arising from Nigeria’s electricity shortages are estimated to be USD 26 billion annually, without accounting for spending on fuel for off-grid generators, which is estimated to be a further USD 22 billion,” the report by Standard Bank said.

It said businesses spend about $22 billion annually on off-grid fuel to offset the impact of power shortages. This further pushes operational costs.

“In Nigeria, surveyed businesses must contend with a national grid that frequently collapses as it fails to meet a daily peak demand which is nearly four times its generation capacity,” the report reads.

It identified electricity supply as a major challenge to business operations in Nigeria and across the African continent.

“Across the 10 African markets, power supply infrastructure remains the most severe obstacle to surveyed businesses’ operations,” the Standard Bank read.

“It is reported as one of the most poorly perceived infrastructural attributes as well as the one presenting the most severe obstacle to business operations,” the report added.

“Blackouts cause a downtime of production, risk the quality of goods that require controlled environments, impact water supply, and affect telecommunications infrastructure which businesses may rely on for payments. The result is reduced sales and income.”

The report comes amid the incessant national grid collapse in recent weeks. Just this month, there was a blackout in many parts of the country after the grid collapsed thrice in seven days.

According to the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the development was due to an explosion of a transformer in one of the transmission stations.

“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs and an associated cascade of power plants shut down arising from the loss of load,” NERC said.

The House of Representatives said it was going to probe the incessant national grid collapse.