🍞Living in (electricity) bondage

Welcome to the middle of the work week!

It's 2026, and Nigeria is still under the clutches of unstable electricity. Yet, the government is *checks note* supplying electricity to other countries.

Why is Nigeria still “living in bondage”? Who is collecting the electricity? What does all this have to do with the price of beer? Read ahead to find out

*insert suspense soundtrack*

Nigeria is sitting on massive gas reserves, but power generation is running on vibes. Thermal plants, which produce most of the country’s electricity, need about 1,629 Million Standard Cubic Feet (MMSCF) of gas daily to function properly. They’re currently getting less than half of that. The result is predictable: lower generation, more load shedding, and nationwide frustration.

At the moment, the entire country’s electricity is fluctuating between 3,000MW and 5,000MW (that’s barely enough for a small city elsewhere), even though the country has more than 13,000MW of installed generation capacity.

Meanwhile… we’re literally burning gas

While power plants are starving, oil companies are flaring gas. In 2025 alone, about 323 million standard cubic feet of gas went up in smoke. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Flaring has technically been illegal without approval since the 1980s, but enforcement is… flexible. Companies often just pay fines because it’s cheaper than building infrastructure to capture and use the gas. So instead of fueling homes and businesses, the gas is burned off as waste.

A financial mess

Generation companies say they’re owed about N6.8 trillion. Out of that, roughly N3.3 trillion is owed to gas suppliers. Gas suppliers, understandably, are tired of IOUs. Many are now saying “no payment, no gas”. That’s a big deal because about 70% of Nigeria’s electricity depends on gas-fired plants, so when gas suppliers pull back, the grid feels it almost immediately.

A system stuck in a loop

To make things worse, many of these companies took loans in dollars when the naira was around ₦155/$1. Now it’s closer to ₦1,400/$1. So even if payments come in, they’re worth far less in real terms.

Infrastructure is doing no one any favours

Even when gas is available, getting it to power plants is another headache. Pipelines, processing facilities, and distribution networks are limited or underdeveloped. That makes it easier to flare gas than to transport it.

FG’s solution

The government wants to create a new company called a Grid Asset Management Company (GAMCO). This company’s job would be to take care of Nigeria’s electricity grid. GAMCO could help with distribution efficiency; even a perfect grid won’t transmit electricity that isn’t being generated.

🤷🏽 While Nigerians are rationing electricity, Nigeria is exporting it abroad. Togo’s national utility, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo, is asking for more electricity from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, which currently supplies about 75 MWh. Demand in Togo is rising fast as more homes and businesses get connected, and the country wants Nigeria to help fill the gap. Nigeria, for its part, is open to exporting more power, but only if it actually gets paid this time. After years of mounting debts in its own power sector (yes, the same one causing blackouts locally), NDPHC is pushing for stricter payment agreements before sending more electricity across the border.

🍻Luxury beer: Nigerian Breweries and Guinness Nigeria are both raising prices on selected drinks, blaming the usual suspects: rising production and operating costs. Nigerian Breweries’ new prices kick in on March 20, while Guinness follows a week later on March 27. If you’re a distributor, there’s a small window to lock in current prices, but you’re running out of time. It’s another ripple from the same economic pressure cooker driving everything else right now, from gas shortages to petrol price fluctuations. As always, higher energy and input costs are flowing into consumer goods.

✨Nigeria has gone indie: Nigeria’s music industry earned over $42 million on Spotify in 2025 (that’s a 140% jump in two years) as Afrobeats and Nigerian sounds continue their global takeover. Streams hit 30 billion+, new listeners crossed 1.3 billion discoveries, and locally, Nigerian artists dominated over 80% of the charts. Independent artists now account for the majority of royalties, while female artists are seeing strong growth, signalling a more diverse, less gatekept industry.

For decades, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has been… meh. Established in 1964, it mostly handled basic arms production but never really scaled into a modern industrial player. The new DICON Act is looking to change that.

With this Act, DICON becomes not just a manufacturer, but also a regulator overseeing the entire defence production ecosystem. That means licensing, inspecting, and setting standards for everything from ammunition to export-grade equipment. More importantly, it opens the door for private companies to enter what used to be a tightly controlled, government-only space.

This is Nigeria’s attempt at building an actual defence industry.

There’s real money on the table

At the moment, defence demand is constant, predictable, and huge. Nigeria alone spends billions annually on military equipment, most of it imported (unsurprisingly).

Additionally, Africa imports over 90% of its security hardware, so the opportunity isn’t just local. Nigeria is positioning itself as a regional supplier, especially within West Africa, where demand is rising alongside security challenges (the business of conflict, eh?).

The defence play is going well

Nigeria just signed a $200 million deal with UAE-backed investors, led by Nigus International Investment Limited and Elmirate Investment LLC. The partnership will set up a new platform, Nigus Tactical Systems Ltd, focused on everything from drones and ammunition to cyber defence and satellite technology.

The idea is to build a full-stack defence and security ecosystem. Not only hardware, but also digital infrastructure like surveillance systems, secure communications, and cyber training platforms.

It’s not just about security

Right now, Nigeria (and most of Africa) depends heavily on foreign suppliers for security equipment. That’s expensive, slow, and geopolitically risky. Analysts say local production changes that while opening up jobs across engineering, manufacturing, logistics and software.

Big ambition, familiar caveat

The PR is good, but will the project actually take off? Building a defence industry isn’t just about passing a law or signing an MoU. It requires sustained investment, strong oversight, and actual follow-through on partnerships and infrastructure.