…reports 86 towers vandalise, 26 completely destroyed in 2024
By Aliyu Galadima In Keffi
Transmission Company of Nigeria ,TCN, has announced an expansion of its wheeling capacity to 8,701 megawatts ,MW, despite grappling with a mounting debt profile of N457bn.
This was disclosed during the TCN’s capacity-building workshop for journalists in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
The TCN’s Executive Director of Transmission Service Provider, Engr. Oluwagbenga Ajiboye, in his presentation, revealed that the debt burden, which includes N217bn in legacy debt and N240bb owed for more recent services, has not stopped the company from pushing forward with critical infrastructure upgrades.
He noted that discussions are ongoing with the Ministry of Finance Incorporated ,MOFI, to recover part of the outstanding debts.
“The market owes us about N457bn as of March 2025, due to market shortfalls and legacy debts. We have traced N217bn to legacy obligations and are in discussions with MOFI for some recovery”, Ajiboye said.
Despite financial constraints, Ajiboye stated that TCN has steadily improved its operational capabilities.
“Our wheeling capacity has now reached 8,701MW. This expansion is a testament to our commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s power transmission backbone”, he said.
However, Ajiboye stressed that persistent weaknesses across the electricity value chain, particularly poor distribution uptake and sectoral inefficiencies continue to hinder the overall performance of the power sector.
He pointed out that over 40 transmission substations remain underutilised or shut down due to unresolved right-of-way issues or outright rejection of power loads by Distribution Companies ,DisCos.
“There are completed substations that are not in use because the lines to evacuate power are yet to be completed. In some cases, DisCos simply refuse to accept the load”, he lamented.
However, the Federal Government’s plans to privatise five National Integrated Power Projects ,NIPPs, have stalled due to what officials describe as low and uncompetitive bids from prospective investors.
The plants affected include Geregu II (434MW) in Kogi, Omotosho II (451MW) in Ondo, Olorunsogo II (750MW) in Ogun, Odukpani (563MW) in Cross River, and Benin-Ihovbor (451MW) in Edo.
Ajiboye explained that while the government remains committed to offloading the NIPP assets to raise funds and address fiscal gaps, current offers from investors fall significantly short of the value of the underlying investments.
“The government wants to sell, but the bids are not reflective of the investment cost. The power stations remain under government control for now”, he said.
Speaking on the broader challenges of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry ,NESI, TCN’s Managing Director, Engr. Sule Abdulaziz, who was represented by Ajiboye, said the power sector remains a fragile value chain where the weakest link, whether in generation, transmission, or distribution, determines the output delivered to end-users.
“No matter how good TCN is, if GenCos are underperforming or if DisCos are not accepting loads, the system cannot function optimally. Each link must be strong for the sector to work efficiently”, Abdulaziz said.
On funding, the TCN General Manager of Project Coordination, Engr. Aminu Tahir said the company has secured financing from international partners, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, French Development Agency, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. These funds are being used to bolster Nigeria’s transmission infrastructure.
He said challenges such as vandalism, right-of-way disputes, and poor demand uptake by DisCos remain key obstacles to delivering reliable power to consumers.
“While Nigeria has an installed generation capacity of over 12,000MW, actual delivery to end-users is often below 5,000MW due to systemic bottlenecks. These gaps must be addressed collectively”, Tahir noted.
However, TCN has also reported that 86 towers were vandalised in 2024, with 26 completely brought down.Mr Ali Sharifa, General Manager of Transmission Service at TCN, disclosed this yesterday in Keffi during a presentation on infrastructure vandalism at a workshop organised for Power Correspondents.
According to him, year 2024 and 2025 have been the most trying time for TCN as a responsive public utility due to vandalism of its transmission line infrastructure by the non-state actors.
”A total of 86 towers were vandalised in 2024 with 26 towers completely down, which put affected states to total darkness.
“These vandalism span across Abuja, Bauchi, Enugu, Shiroro, Kano and Port-Harcourt Regions.
”While in the first and second quarters of 2025 a total of 42 acts of vandalism were recorded affecting a total of 178 towers”, he said.
He said that beside the activities of vandals, natural disaster also hindered the free flow of electricity to the grid as TCN recently recorded along Kainji-Birnin Kebbi 330kV SC (International)line.
” Where six towers T306, 1307, T308, T365, T366 and 1367 collapsed in May due to wind-storm and torrential rainfall.
”In the same May, Apir-Lafia-Jos 330kV DC Line Tower T137 had a twist (partial collapse) due to wind-storm and torrential rainfall”, he said.
Sharifa said that sabotage, political and economic reasons were responsible for theses acts of vandalism.
He listed the the effect of TCN’s infrastructure vandalism to include
disruption of power supply across the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry , as the generated power from generation station could not be wheeled to the distribution ends.
“Other effects of vandalism include the incurring of significant costs by the company due to repairs, replacement and need for increased security measures to address vandalism.
”The company’s grid expansion efforts is hindered by act of vandalism to pay contractor’s invoices used on repairs.
”And there is also the concern with public safety whenever transmission infrastructure is vandalised”, he said.
He, however, said that the company was reaching out to locals where the transmission lines were prone to vandalism, adding that they were also engaging with the Office of the National Security Adviser ,ONSA, after the series of vandalism in 2024,
” TCN reached out to ONSA for the protection of vulnerable transmission lines against vandalism.
” Some critical lines have been selected as pilot scheme for which state- of- art technology will be deployed to monitor and deter future vandalism.
” Sensitisation and sponsored programmes, jingles on both social and print media including radio and television stations against vandalism of TCN assets is reaching far and wide as Nigerians are now fully informed that TCN property is their property”, he said.
Sharifa said that sensitisation had led to the arrest of vandals who were now facing prosecution.
