By Seun Ibiyemi
Nigeria’s electricity grid has collapsed for the second time in 2026, plunging the country into a widespread blackout and leaving millions of homes and businesses without power.
Checks on the official website of the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) showed that as of 10:54 a.m. on Monday, January 27, 2026, all major electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) across the country recorded zero megawatts (0 MW) of power supply, underscoring the severity of the outage.
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) confirmed the development in a notice to its customers, stating that a system collapse occurred at about 10:48 a.m., resulting in a loss of power supply across its entire network.
The company said it was working closely with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and other partners to restore the grid as quickly as possible.
“EKEDC is collaborating with TCN for the speedy restoration of supply and will keep customers informed as soon as power is restored,” the utility said.
Data from NISO indicated that all major DisCos including Abuja, Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola were affected, with total national electricity generation dropping to 0 MW.
The latest collapse comes just days after the first grid failure of the year on Friday, January 23, 2026, which also led to a nationwide outage.
While NISO has yet to issue an official statement on Monday’s incident, it had earlier attributed the January 23 disturbance to the simultaneous tripping of multiple 330kV transmission lines before restoration efforts were completed.
The repeated system failures highlight persistent challenges in Nigeria’s power sector, including aging infrastructure, transmission constraints and generation shortfalls, raising fresh concerns about the reliability of electricity supply in Africa’s most populous nation.