Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe has said the Electricity Act 2023 ended the federal monopoly in Nigeria’s power sector and effectively created 37 emerging electricity markets across the country.
Tegbe spoke during his keynote address at the opening plenary of the 50th edition of the Middle East Energy 2026 Leadership Summit in Dubai.
According to a statement on Tuesday by Adeola Labzy, special adviser (media and publicity) to the minister, Tegbe spoke on the theme “Energy Security and the Effect of Geopolitics”.
On June 9, 2023, President Bola Tinubu assented to the electricity bill, which empowers states, companies and individuals to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity.
The minister described the Electricity Act 2023 as the most far-reaching reform of Nigeria’s power sector in a generation.
Tegbe said the Electricity Act of 2023 “ended a long-standing federal monopoly and effectively created 37 emerging electricity markets across the federation under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu”.
He said energy security in 2026 could no longer be defined by hydrocarbon reserves alone, but by the resilience of the entire energy system.
Tegbe said this includes critical mineral supply chains, grid infrastructure, capital, and institutions that keep energy flowing to homes, hospitals, and industries during periods of stress.
“Capital does not flee risk; it flees uncertainty. Investors will price risk all day long; what they cannot price is a rule that changes after the contract is signed,” the minister said.
He described Nigeria’s reform agenda as a credibility agenda built on regulatory certainty, contract sanctity and bankable offtake.
Tegbe said diversification, rather than diplomatic disengagement, was the surest form of strategic insurance.
He added that electricity grids now deserved the same strategic attention historically given to fuel supply, saying affordability was also a security issue.
The minister said the global energy transition must be orderly, just, and responsive to the circumstances of individual countries.
He said Africa, home to 600 million people still without electricity, was not at the periphery of global energy geopolitics but at its centre.
According to the minister, the continent’s mineral wealth, solar resources, youthful workforce, and fast-growing energy demand would shape energy security in London, Tokyo, Washington, and Dubai in the coming decades.
Tegbe called for partnerships that go beyond raw resource extraction to include local processing, manufacturing, skills transfer, and patient capital.