Nigeria’s electricity sector continued to underperform in July 2025, with almost 60 per cent of installed generation capacity sitting idle, according to the latest figures from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
NERC’s July performance factsheet showed a plant availability factor of 41 per cent, up by just two percentage points from June. Average available capacity stood at 5,577 megawatts (MW), compared to the country’s total installed capacity of 13,625 MW. This means that more than half of the grid’s generation assets were offline for significant periods during the month.
The report attributed the poor performance to inadequate plant maintenance driven by rising government indebtedness, persistent gas supply constraints, and low load offtake by distribution companies.
Average hourly generation for July reached 4,340 megawatt-hours per hour (MWh/h), representing a marginal 0.3 per cent increase from June. However, the average load factor fell by three percentage points to 78 per cent, indicating that even the capacity brought online was not being fully utilised.
