ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria has secured fresh commitments from Chinese engineering companies and financial institutions to accelerate major electricity projects as the government seeks to address persistent power shortages that have placed heavy costs on households and businesses.
Power Minister Joseph Tegbe reached the agreements during high level meetings in Beijing as part of a Nigeria China power sector mission covering electricity generation, transmission, financing and industrial development. The talks focused particularly on projects under the Presidential Power Initiative and on attracting additional Chinese investment across Nigeria’s electricity industry.
Tegbe met officials of Sinomach Group and China Machinery Engineering Corp., or CMEC, companies involved in Nigeria’s generation and transmission programs. He called for firmer completion schedules for ongoing projects and proposed moving beyond traditional construction contracts toward partnerships in which Chinese companies could provide financing, technology and technical expertise while co-investing in infrastructure.
The minister also visited China National Electric Engineering Corp. to discuss work on Nigeria’s transmission network. Nigerian officials say transmission bottlenecks remain one of the biggest obstacles to getting available electricity from generating plants to homes, factories and businesses. The delegation also witnessed testing of high voltage cables and other equipment intended for Nigerian transmission projects before shipment.
Tegbe said the government wants foreign partnerships to produce visible improvements rather than remain agreements on paper. The ministry said success should ultimately be measured in additional megawatts of electricity, transmission lines brought into service and longer hours of reliable power for Nigerians. It is also encouraging Chinese investors to consider steel production, automotive manufacturing, data centers, cold-chain logistics and other industries that depend heavily on reliable electricity.
China has signaled its willingness to deepen energy cooperation with Nigeria. Chinese Ambassador Yu Dunhai said during an August meeting with Tegbe that electricity infrastructure and new energy were priority areas in relations between the two countries. He said Beijing was prepared to strengthen cooperation in the sector as part of the broader China Nigeria strategic partnership.
The latest commitments come as Nigerian businesses continue to complain about the high cost of generating their own electricity. Manufacturers spent about 1.34 trillion naira on alternative power sources in 2025, according to data from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, as factories relied on diesel generators, gas and other alternatives because of unreliable grid electricity.
Industry leaders say fixing electricity supply could significantly reduce production costs. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Director General Segun Ajayi Kadir has said manufacturers continue to struggle with unreliable public electricity and the rising cost of diesel, gas and other forms of self generated power. The association has called for greater investment in reliable and affordable energy to support industrial growth.
Other manufacturers have been even more direct about the impact on businesses. Oluchi Odimuko, an official of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, said irregular electricity forces companies to provide their own power and estimated that energy accounts for a substantial share of production costs. In southeastern Nigeria, manufacturers have also warned that high electricity costs are forcing some factories to operate far below their installed capacity.
For many Nigerians, however, new foreign commitments will ultimately be judged by whether electricity becomes more reliable and affordable. Successive governments have announced major power sector investments, but households and businesses continue to experience outages and depend heavily on generators and other private sources. The latest China-backed initiative therefore faces a familiar public test: whether agreements, financing and imported equipment can translate into electricity people can actually use.
The government says the broader goal is to strengthen the national grid, increase transmission capacity and connect power investment more closely with industrial development. Tegbe has said grid stability must form the foundation of Nigeria’s electricity reforms, arguing that increases in generation will have limited impact if the transmission system remains too weak to deliver the power to consumers.
