Nigeria was thrown into darkness on Wednesday after the national electricity grid collapsed yet again, disrupting power supply across the country.
The system failure occurred around 11:54 a.m. on September 10, 2025, according to a statement on the official handle of the National Grid. At the time, only the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IbadanDisco) had a meagre 20 megawatts, while all other DisCos were at zero.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) later confirmed the outage in a notice to customers, saying the collapse occurred at about 11:23 a.m. and left homes, businesses, and institutions in its franchise area without electricity.
“Please be informed that the power outage currently being experienced is due to a loss of supply from the national grid,” AEDC said, assuring that efforts were underway with relevant stakeholders to restore supply once the grid stabilises.
The latest collapse has renewed frustration among Nigerians, who have endured years of erratic supply. In 2024 alone, the country recorded at least 12 grid collapses. Despite claims by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that there have been no system failures in 2025, Wednesday’s incident marks the third this year.
In April, Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu had announced that Nigeria’s grid was becoming more stable following the addition of 700 megawatts under the Siemens-backed Presidential Power Initiative. He said almost 90% of the project’s equipment — including transformers and mobile substations — had been installed, boosting transmission capacity.
Adelabu noted that the upgrade was supposed to help the grid withstand loads above 5,000MW without collapsing, describing it as “clear progress” in Nigeria’s power sector.
