The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies (GENCO’s), Joy Ogaji, has warned that Nigeria’s electricity generation debt could rise to about N6.6tn by the end of February 2026.
She said this while cautioning that the growing liabilities could further destabilise the country’s fragile power sector.
Speaking during an interview on Arise News on Thursday, Ogaji blamed the growing debt on some factors including President Bola Tinubu’s failure to redeem his earlier pledge to pay off N4tn from the debt as at July last year.
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According to her, generation companies currently invoice roughly N280bn monthly but receive only about 35 per cent payment or below that, leaving a shortfall of around N200bn each month.
“So as at December 2024, it was N4tn. If you calculate N200bn times 12, you know the figure for 2025. And now we are currently in February. So currently it’s above N6tn. We’re looking at about N6.6tn by the end of this month. So that is the figure,” she stated.
Responding to allegations by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) that power firms were exaggerating claims and engaging in institutionalised extortion, Ogaji dismissed the assertions as unfounded.
“I believe that the (NLC) president has been in the power sector, although he never worked in the power sector for the records. So him making such spurious claims, I can’t forgive him for that, because ignorance can cause anybody to say anything they want to say.
“So, I tell you, he’s an ignorant man. He’s ignorant of how the power debts accumulated. These are verifiable invoices in a regulated market. Like I said, that debt has accumulated from 2015 to 2024, making it N4tn. And from 2015 to this month, it has increased to N6.5tn,” she said.
She argued that proposed government interventions, including an N800bn promissory note and a N500bn bond, were insufficient relative to the scale of the obligations.
“You cannot take N800bn to pay a debt that was already N4tn at the time, and still swelling,” she said, adding that even the N500bn bond “cannot scratch a N6tn debt.”
She recalled a prior commitment by Bola Tinubu to approve N4tn to clear legacy debts but suggested the plan had yet to materialise fully.
“This is against the promise of the President. We had a meeting with him on the 25th of July last year, where he categorically, as a father, spoke to us and appealed to that he will approve N4tn to deal with the legacy debt that was of 2024.
“And then he will now work with his team to ensure that the debt profile is not growing again. Now, what I believe is his handlers and his advisors have hijacked this N4tn, and have decided to balkanize it in the way they didn’t fit, without cognizance of the implication on power generation companies.
“If you’re owing a business N6.5tn, and you still expect that business to continue to produce, that may be sounding somehow. I don’t want to say what it sounds like, but we all know what it sounds like,” she said.
She warned that the rising debt burden was already affecting operations, including gas payment obligations and investor confidence, with some lenders becoming uneasy.
“Our auditors are asking if these receivables will ever be paid. Investors cannot plan in this environment,” she said.
She also highlighted structural bottlenecks beyond generation capacity, explaining that Nigeria’s installed generation capacity far exceeds what can be delivered to consumers.
According to her, Nigeria has about 15,500 megawatts installed capacity across roughly 30 grid-connected plants but can transmit only around 5,000 megawatts at once due to limitations of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Addressing Nigeria’s broader industrial ambitions, Ogaji warned that unreliable electricity undermines competitiveness.
“How do you run an industrial policy without power? Manufacturers are resorting to private generation, which increases costs and makes local goods uncompetitive,” she said.
She endorsed calls by industrialist Aliko Dangote for a coordinated national power dialogue, suggesting a presidentially chaired forum of technocrats to find lasting solutions.
She also appealed directly to the president to prioritise the sector, arguing that political interference had historically slowed progress in the sector.
Drawing a historical comparison, Ogaji referenced reforms during the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan, when a presidential task force on power brought together local and diaspora experts to address sector bottlenecks.
While acknowledging public frustration over unreliable electricity, she apologised to Nigerians for persistent outages but maintained that resolving transmission constraints, improving payment discipline, and clearing accumulated debts remain critical to stabilising supply.