Nigerians are facing yet another round of nationwide blackouts after the collapse of the national power grid, marking the third such failure in just one week.
The continuous breakdowns of the grid have heightened frustration across the country, as businesses, households, and critical services are repeatedly disrupted by the nation’s fragile electricity infrastructure.
The latest grid failure occurred in the early hours of Saturday, leading to widespread reports of total blackouts from various states.
This incident follows two other collapses earlier in the week, further intensifying the strain on the already overstretched power system.
According to data obtained from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org), the national grid recorded an unprecedented zero megawatts (MW) at precisely 8:16 am on Saturday.
The report further revealed that all 22 generation companies (GenCos) were down as of the time this report was filed, reflecting the depth of the ongoing crisis.
This recent collapse marks the eighth grid disturbance in 2024, compounding the long-standing challenges plaguing Nigeria’s power sector.
The nation’s electricity system has struggled for years with underinvestment, inadequate infrastructure, and inconsistent generation capacity, all contributing to its frequent failures.
Despite the far-reaching consequences of the blackout, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had not yet confirmed the collapse or provided details on what triggered the latest failure.
This lack of communication has left the public and key stakeholders in the dark regarding any possible timeline for resolving the crisis.
A similar incident occurred earlier this year, on February 4, when Nigeria experienced its first major blackout of 2024. On that day, the national grid collapsed at around 11:51 AM, with the TCN-managed grid capacity dropping sharply from 2,407MW to just 31MW by noon, before completely shutting down by 1 PM.
The repeated grid failures in such a short period have further exposed the fragility of Nigeria’s power sector, sparking widespread discontent and calls for urgent reforms.
