In developed nations, I marvel at the incredible stability of power supply, water, road infrastructure, etc. These nations understand what drives prosperity, and they ensure those things are never lacking.

Nigeria has had 50+ years to fix it's power problem. Yet the country continues to lag behind. Issues that have been solved in other countries generations ago, still plague Nigeria.

Kudos to the country for at least, taking the first step toward privatizing power generation. Govt has proven it cannot handle electric power generation. So private investors have to take over. An example is AEDC, which presides over power in Abuja, Nassarawa, Niger, and Kogi. Sadly, despite privatization, power interruptions still persist.

I believe that these power companies being monopolies is not a good thing. Competition should somehow be built into the system, whereby businesses compete for customers. Imagine if Nigeria only had a single bank. Or a single telecom company. Those companies would screw customers over with impunity.

Just as you can port your phone number between telecom networks, you should similarly be able to buy power from different providers with ease. When a business sees that it's loosing customers, it would naturally be forced to improve its services, or go out of business.

One of the newer developments in electricity generation is grid-tie inverter system.
Traditionally, the government, or a big company generates the power. The power is then distributed to consumers through a network of distribution channels. This remains the strategy in Nigeria to this day.

With grid-tie technology however, any individual can generate power, and sell it to the power company. The individual is then paid for the power generated. This payment happens by the power meter slowing down, or even turning backwards.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8vi5netiLU

So instead of making power generation a multi-billion Dollar affair, Nigeria should build a grid-tie infrastructure to enable ordinary Nigerians become a part of the power generation network. Those that can do solar would do solar, and/or those that can do wind can do wind. With as little as N60K, you can install a 300W solar panel plus inverter, and start to sell power to the power grid.

To put things in perspective, let's assume 10 million homes across Nigeria install an average of 3,000 Watts of panels.
That amounts to 10,000,000*3,000W = 30,000,000,000W = 30,000 MegaWatts.

Assuming solar panels can produce 80% of it's rated output, then 30,000MW*0.8 = 24,000 MegaWatts.
If combined with wind, power can be generated at night, and on cloudy days as well.

Nigeria currently struggles to generate 5,000 MegaWatts nationally. Meanwhile 10mil homes have the potential to generate 24,000 more megawatts through a grid-tie inverter system.