Suara Sherif
Nigerian manufacturers spent a staggering N1.34 trillion on alternative electricity sources in 2025, a sum that lays bare the crushing weight of the country’s persistent power crisis on its industrial backbone.
The figure, drawn from exclusive data by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria obtained by The PUNCH, represents a 21 percent jump from the N1.11 trillion spent in 2024.
It is money that did not go into expanding factories, hiring workers or lowering prices.
Instead, it went into diesel, gas and generator maintenance to keep production lines running while the national grid flickered and failed.
The trajectory tells the story of a crisis deepening with each passing year. In 2014, manufacturers spent just N25 billion on alternative power.
By 2022, the figure had climbed to N144.5 billion.
Then came the explosion: N781.7 billion in 2023, crossing the N1 trillion mark in 2024, and reaching N1.34 trillion in 2025.
In just over a decade, the cost of fighting darkness multiplied more than fifty-fold.
“Grid reliability deteriorated significantly, with daily power supply dropping from 16.7 hours in H1 2025 to just 13.1 hours in H2 2025,” the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria stated, led by its President, Segun Ajayi-Kadir.
Dr Muda Yusuf, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, framed the crisis in stark economic terms.
“Power supply continues to be one of the most binding constraints on industrial productivity. Manufacturers are compelled to self-generate energy at enormous cost, undermining competitiveness and eroding profitability,” Yusuf said.
The burden is not evenly distributed.
Some of Nigeria’s largest manufacturers have built their own power infrastructure, effectively becoming independent utilities.
Dangote Industries Limited generated about 1,500 megawatts in 2025, with the Dangote refinery alone operating a 435MW power plant capable of meeting the total power requirement of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.
Other companies have followed suit.
Pure Flour Mills secured a licence to generate 546MW, United Cement Company produces 105MW, Lafarge Cement Wapco generates 90MW, and Flour Mills of Nigeria produces 70MW.
An earlier survey by Professor Adeola Adenikinju of the University of Ibadan found that manufacturers self-generate an astonishing 13,223 megawatts of electricity.
The N1.3 trillion burden is not simply a business problem.
It is a national economic wound. Every naira spent on diesel is a naira not invested in productivity, innovation or job creation.
It is a hidden tax on every product made in Nigeria, passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. Some factories have not survived the strain.
Louis Carter Industries, a plastic-making company, shut down due to energy costs.
Mothers Pride Ventures, which produced pet bottles and nylon in Asaba for over five years, closed in 2018 over high production costs linked to power failures.
“No manufacturing economy can achieve global competitiveness when power is unreliable, logistics are inefficient and capital is prohibitively expensive,” Yusuf warned.
Ajayi-Kadir echoed the urgency: “Stabilising macroeconomic conditions, improving energy supply, and ensuring access to affordable financing will be critical for sustaining growth and enhancing industrial productivity.”
The N1.3 trillion question is whether Nigeria’s leaders will finally treat reliable electricity as the foundation of industrial growth, or whether manufacturers will continue to bear the crushing cost of a grid that cannot keep the lights on.
