We must stop measuring power success by megawatts alone — Tegbe
By Precious Mark
The Minister of Power, Chief Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, has declared that the success of Nigeria’s power sector must no longer be measured by the volume of megawatts generated or cables laid, but strictly by how effectively electricity is used to drive economic productivity, rural enterprise, and agricultural preservation.
This information was made known recently by the Minister during his keynote address at the National Stakeholders’ Engagement Workshop on the Productive Use of Energy (PUE) held in Abuja on Thursday.
Addressing state delegates, development partners, and private-sector investors, Tegbe explained that under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the metric for success in the power sector must shift away from administrative benchmarks to focus entirely on tangible economic output.
He noted that while traditional indices like network expansion remain useful, the true value of electricity lies in its ability to directly power smallholder farming and rural micro-enterprises.
“When we speak about electricity, we often measure success by megawatts generated, kilometres of distribution lines constructed, or the number of households connected, but the true measure of success is what electricity enables,” Tegbe said.
Highlighting the critical overlap between energy deficits and national food insecurity, the Minister lamented that local farmers continue to lose significant portions of their harvests due to a lack of processing and preservation infrastructure.
He argued that the widespread adoption of energy-efficient productive-use equipment—such as solar-powered irrigation pumps and modular processing mills, remains the most viable path to making Nigeria’s massive agricultural economy globally competitive.
“We lose crops because there is insufficient cold storage, we lose income because processing capacity remains inadequate, and we lose jobs because raw produce leaves our farms without value addition,” Tegbe said.
The Minister commended the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) for leading the national dialogue on policy alignment, stressing that a sustainable energy transition cannot be achieved by individual government bodies acting in isolation.
He tasked local financial institutions to recognize energy-efficient agricultural equipment as a lucrative, bankable asset class capable of generating predictable cash flows while urging technology developers to prioritize localization and long-term after-sales support.
Tegbe closed with an appeal to both public and private stakeholders to actively align their operational frameworks, expressing absolute confidence that a collaborative ecosystem will unlock the necessary investments to scale clean energy solutions across rural communities.
“Together, we can ensure that every kilowatt of electricity deployed in rural Nigeria powers prosperity,” Tegbe concluded.