President Bola Tinubu has ordered the clearance of more than 300 containers of electricity equipment stranded at Nigerian ports for up to 20 years, seeking to recover potentially usable infrastructure as his government pursues a major expansion of the country’s transmission network.
Minister of Power Olasunkanmi Tegbe disclosed the directive on Wednesday after a Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja. He said unpaid charges and unresolved customs procedures had kept the containers in storage for between 14 and 20 years.
Tinubu has directed the Ministry of Power to work with the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigeria Customs Service to reconcile outstanding charges and complete the necessary clearance procedures.
However, the government has not disclosed the total value of the equipment, the amount required to secure its release or the deadline for completing the exercise.
Tegbe said technical experts would inspect the materials after clearance to determine which items could still serve the electricity network. Usable equipment would be deployed to ongoing projects, while obsolete materials would be handled appropriately.
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Can the stranded equipment ease power constraints?
The order raises a critical question for Nigeria’s electricity sector: how much infrastructure can be recovered from years of administrative delay, and how quickly can it contribute to improved supply?
Clearing the containers would be only the first step. The equipment must be in serviceable condition, meet current technical requirements and reach locations where it can address specific network deficiencies. After years in storage, some materials may require repairs or may no longer be suitable for their intended purpose.
The government has yet to identify the ports holding the containers or provide an inventory of their contents. Those details would help establish the scale of the backlog and allow the public to assess the outcome of the recovery effort.
₦3.3tn debt clouds transmission ambitions
The clearance directive comes alongside plans to expand Nigeria’s transmission capacity. Tegbe said the Federal Executive Council had approved the commencement of procurement for proposed East and West Super Grids, designed to increase capacity from about 5,000 megawatts to 19,000MW within two years.
The council also approved a 33kV line linked to Katampe Transmission Substation, three 300MVA transformers for Ikeja West and an upgrade of the 35.6-kilometre Itumola-Mapasin-Shagamu transmission line.
Tegbe disclosed that the Federal Government had paid ₦1.23 trillion out of ₦3.3 trillion owed to gas suppliers and other power-sector stakeholders. The unpaid balance matters because inadequate gas supplies can restrict generation even when transmission facilities are available.
The ministry has also launched a nationwide technical audit to identify ageing and underperforming infrastructure. Construction has begun on a new National Control Centre in Osogbo to replace the existing facility, built 64 years ago.
Results will determine the value of the order
Nigeria’s electricity difficulties span generation, transmission, distribution, fuel supply and sector financing. Recovering abandoned equipment could help address some constraints, but it cannot resolve them all.
The key measures of success will be the speed of clearance, the quantity of equipment recovered, its eventual deployment and any verifiable improvement in grid performance. Until the government publishes those details, the directive represents a recovery opportunity, not a guaranteed increase in electricity supply.
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