If I’m elected president, Nigeria’s power generation capacity will rise to 10,000MW — Peter Obi

The former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has pledged to increase Nigeria’s electricity generation capacity to 10,000 megawatts (MW) if elected president.

Obi made the promise on Saturday after emerging as the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) at the party’s national convention in Abuja.

The convention was convened to formally ratify Obi’s candidacy as the NDC’s sole presidential flagbearer for the 2027 elections.

In his acceptance speech, Obi described it as “unacceptable” that a country with a population of over 200 million people generates only about 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

He noted that Nigeria’s power generation remains far below the output of countries such as South Africa and Egypt.

“It is totally unacceptable. Today, Nigeria is a country with the highest number of citizens without access to electricity in the whole world. About 100 million Nigerians don’t have access to electricity,” he said.

“In today’s world, it is unacceptable. A country of over 200 million people only generates and distributes 4,000 (megawatts).

“The biggest economies in Africa— South Africa and Egypt — generate over 40,000 megawatts today.

“So we are not even producing 10% of what these two African nations are producing and distributing. Both of them are less than 50% of our population and they generate 10 times the electricity we generate. These are African countries.

“It is unacceptable. It cannot happen. And I pledge on behalf of our government that in four years, this country will generate and distribute at least 10,000 megawatts from the 4,000 they are doing today.”

Obi also questioned the unemployment figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 4.3 percent in the second quarter of 2024. He argued that the data does not accurately reflect the situation across the country.

The former governor said his administration would address unemployment through transparent policies, support for small businesses, and the provision of incentives to stimulate job creation.

In April 2026, the federal government reported that electricity generation recorded a slight increase, rising from 3,951 megawatts on March 28 to more than 4,300MW by April 10.