Chinedu Eze
The two main service suppliers within the aviation business, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) spend over N34 billion on energy from grid electrical energy yearly.
Recent overview from the Ministry of Aviation indicated that that is along with different sources of energy, from energy mills to renewable power.
Two years in the past, the ministry stated Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) alone, consumes N1 billion value of electrical energy month-to-month and extra excessive prices have been incurred throughout different main journey hubs, with power payments for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja additionally surpassing N1 billion yearly.
To scale back the fee, FAAN has been working to restructure its aviation grasp plan to actively transition main worldwide airports to photo voltaic power.
The company has additionally suffered closely from working high-capacity diesel mills in a single day throughout non-peak hours, when no lively flights are scheduled, at a really large value. In reality, experiences confirmed that latest capital investments by FAAN on different energy embody a N8.73 billion allocation explicitly devoted to modernizing airport energy infrastructure to optimise grid utilisation and systematically eradicate reliance on diesel gasoline.
In the identical vein, NAMA spends over N10 billion yearly on energy. Until lately it was utilizing mills to energy off grid set up positioned in numerous elements of the nation. These installations present security crucial providers within the airspace; so, the facility supply that sustains the operations can’t be compromised.
To finish the hiccups in energy provide from the grid, NAMA has steadily invested a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of naira into transitioning a number of of its main air site visitors management and navigational assist stations (together with Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt) to solar energy methods.
These challenges convey to the fore the summit on energy, titled, ‘Energy Costs and Business Survival’, organized by the Lagos Country Club final week within the third version of its Business Forum.
The main discourse on the summit was how Nigeria might present dependable and steady electrical energy to convey down the large sources organisations like FAAN and NAMA, large manufacturing firms, medium and small scale enterprises spend on electrical energy, which amplify the price of merchandise and providers they supply.
Energy specialists embody Professor Barth Nnaji, former Minister of Power and Chairman/Chief Executive, Geometric Power; the Senior Energy Executive and Managing Partner, JDR Energy Limited, Ifeoma Ukabiala; the Executive Director JMG Limited and former President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Otunba Francis Meshioye and others, x-rayed the challenges enterprise organisations face in Nigeria by way of provision of energy and its excessive prices.
Meshioye in his opening remarks noticed that companies might create jobs, help households, stimulate native manufacturing, generate authorities income, and drive nationwide financial growth.
He famous that when unsustainable power prices put companies beneath strain, “we should turn the challenge from a threat to their survival, into an opportunity to rethink how Nigeria produces, consumes, and pays for energy.”
He stated that Nigeria might get out of the current energy conundrum by making knowledgeable selections, embracing innovation, deploying effectivity, methodologies, adopting cleaner manufacturing applied sciences and fostering collaboration
The particular visitor of honour, Ifeoma Ukabiala, in her speech, painted a grim image of what companies undergo in Nigeria because of insufficient provide of electrical energy and how the price of energy eat into the profitability of companies.
“The information are sobering. This January (2026), the nationwide grid collapsed twice in 5 days, on the twenty third and the twenty seventh, barely a month after one other collapse in December. On a typical day, the grid carries 4 to 5 thousand megawatts, in opposition to greater than twelve thousand megawatts of put in capability.
“Our producers spent about N1.35 trillion on different energy in 2025, up 23 per cent in a single yr. Our Chairman, Otunba Francis Meshioye, is aware of this burden higher than anybody from his years main the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. And the affiliation tells us that round 35 per cent of manufacturing value now goes to power. Across the entire economic system, the World Bank has estimated that Nigerian companies lose about $29 billion yearly to unreliable electrical energy.
“Who feels it? Manufacturers, whose mills run the manufacturing strains. Small companies, who inform us they spend over 40 per cent of their revenue on different power. Hotels, hospitals, chilly rooms and golf equipment like this one, the place reliability is the very product that we promote. But allow us to not overlook the typical Nigerian. He pays twice: tokens for the grid, then petrol for a small generator. Or he merely sits at the hours of darkness. And he’s removed from alone: in line with the World Bank, practically 87 million Nigerians don’t have any entry to electrical energy in any respect, greater than in any
different nation on earth. That particular person is your buyer, and that particular person is your employees. When power eats their earnings, they purchase much less. Business survival and family aid are the identical dialog,” she stated.
She emphasised that in lots of Nigerian companies, the generator is the actual ‘chairman’. Because it takes its share of the revenue earlier than anybody else is paid, and it by no means misses a board assembly.
“And the fuel bill is only what we can see. Behind it sit downtime, idle staff, damaged equipment, spoiled stock, and price increases that we cannot pass on. In many businesses, the hidden bill is bigger than the visible one,” Ukabiala added.
Nnaji insisted that for Nigeria to have steady electrical energy, authorities should permit value reflective tariffs. That is, electrical energy suppliers should cost the tariffs that may convey return on their funding in order that they’ll run worthwhile issues or authorities ought to be able to subsidize energy. The later, he stated, can be too expensive. So, the important thing to steady energy in Nigeria is for the federal authorities to permit value reflective tariff in order that traders can convey large capital and put money into the sector.
Back to aviation, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria energy the runways of the main airports within the nation 24 hours. At crucial intervals they function off grid and energy these services with mills with a purpose to keep away from energy outage throughout touchdown and take-off of airplanes within the evening.
The NAMA want fixed electrical energy provide to energy most of its crucial tools. It depends closely on steady, steady energy to forestall communication dropouts (typically termed “blind spots”) between pilots and air site visitors controllers. Because plane fly always of the day, any lack of electrical energy threatens crucial air security methods.
Air site visitors administration wants fixed electrical energy. So additionally, are the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) which offers radar providers and captures each plane within the airspace.
The communication system, cellular and major management towers, voice communication system, very excessive frequency transceivers, voice recording system, navigational aids, together with instrument Landing System, must be working for twenty-four hours.
What the discussion board on energy encapsulated final week was that presently Nigerians are spending an excessive amount of cash to get electrical energy; but, they aren’t getting satisfactory provide. For there to be steady energy provide, the business should be made enticing to traders by making funding within the sector worthwhile.
