Nigeria’s Power Sector: Changing Coaches, Keeping the Same Players

By Nick Agule
X: @NickAgule
Facebook: Nick Agule, FCA
03.06.2026

As the European football season has just ended and the World Cup is around the corner, permit me to use a football analogy to explain Nigeria’s power sector conundrum.

Imagine Nigeria’s power sector as our national football team.

The GENCOs are the defenders. The TCN is the midfield. The DISCOs are the forwards.

The defenders (GENCOs) pass the ball (electricity) to the midfield (TCN). However, the midfielder loses possession about 3/10 times because of age, poor fitness and weak technical abilities (technical losses arising from weak and aging transmission infrastructure).

Of the 7 times the midfielder successfully controls the ball, the forwards (DISCOs) refuse to receive it about 2 times because they lack the network capacity to distribute the power being delivered.

Of the remaining 5 times the forwards receive the ball, they lose possession about 2 times through technical losses, energy theft, poor transformers, weak distribution networks, and other commercial inefficiencies.

Of the 3 times they retain possession, they fail to take a shot at goal once because many customers are either unmetered or not properly billed.

Of the 2 shots they eventually take, only one results in a goal (cash in the bank) because revenue collection remains poor.

In football terms, only a tiny fraction of the electricity generated is ultimately converted into cash that can sustain the industry.

The owners of the club are the Nigerian people. They elect a Chairman (the President), who appoints a Technical Director (the Minister of Power).

Since privatisation in 2013, the team has failed to win a single match. Darkness persists across much of the country. Yet every season, management and players assure the fans (customers) that success is just around the corner.

The owners have responded by changing Chairmen. We are now on our third Chairman since privatisation. The Chairmen, in turn, have changed Technical Directors repeatedly; we are now on our sixth Minister of Power.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been injected into the team by the Federal Government, the Central Bank, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the IFC, the AFC, USAID, JICA, and other development partners. The players keep asking for more money, yet performance on the pitch remains largely unchanged.

Because the team is scoring so poorly, the fans (customers) are either not paying to watch any games (living in darkness) or switching to other teams (solar, generator), thus gate takings are dwindling. But the team’s costs keep rising as more players are recruited including new midfielders called TSP, NISO & GAMCO! Actually this team started with 1 player called NEPA aka PHCN but today they have recruited more than 50 expensive players but yet no change in performance!

Curiously, while Chairmen and Technical Directors are routinely blamed and replaced, very few people are asking the obvious question: what about the players on the field?

No football club can succeed with players who consistently lose possession, refuse passes, fail to shoot, and cannot score goals. The Chairman and Technical Director must act to avoid blame!

The uncomfortable truth is that the President Jonathan’s privatisation transferred critical assets to operators who, in many cases, have failed to deliver the investment, technical competence, operational efficiency, and customer service needed to transform the sector (the Jonathan’s team simply can’t give what they don’t have!).

Until Nigeria is prepared to honestly assess the performance of the GENCOs, TCN and the DISCOs, revoke licences where necessary, and reopen the market to globally competitive operators with proven technical and financial capacity, we will continue to recycle the same excuses, inject more money, and read from the Book of Lamentations while the lights remain off.

A football team does not improve simply because the Chairman changes. It improves when better players take the field managed by a competent Technical Director and coaching crew. So it is with the power sector!

AI generated image.

Nick Agule (nick.agule@yahoo.co.uk) is an energy expert