The Nigerian Revenue Service has joined the growing list of major organisations abandoning the troubled national electricity grid, securing approval to generate its own power amid persistent outages that continue to cripple businesses and government operations across the country.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s fourth quarter 2025 report, the revenue agency obtained a captive power generation permit for a 6.08-megawatt plant at its headquarters in the Central Business District of Abuja.
This comes after the Aso Rock Villa spent billions of naira on solar installation. The move forms part of a broader wave of self-help electricity projects as both private companies and public institutions lose confidence in the national grid.
NRS unveiled what it described as its state-of-the-art headquarters in Abuja earlier in the week. In the fourth quarter of 2026, NERC approved 11 captive power permits, with total capacity exceeding 130 MW. Prominent recipients include Abuja Steel Mill Nigeria Limited with 50 MW and Yongxing Steel Company Limited with 45 MW in Edo State.
Others are T&D West Africa Limited Lake in Abuja (1.25 MW); Vinylon Footwear Industry Limited in Jigawa (6 MW); Nigerian Spanish Engineering Limited (6 MW); Standard Plastic Industry Nigeria Limited in Kano (7 MW); Watson’s Bakery Nigeria Limited in Kano (2.26 MW); Superior Eva Footwear Nigeria Limited in Kano (5 MW); and Wihi International Ltd along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (3.40 MW).
This surge in captive generation underscores the deepening crisis in Nigeria’s power sector, where the national grid remains largely unstable despite repeated promises of improvement. Many industries have long complained that frequent collapses and erratic supply force them to rely on expensive diesel generators, which inflate production costs and reduce competitiveness.
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