Nigeria’s national power grid experienced a complete shutdown on Friday, throwing several parts of the country into darkness in the first grid collapse recorded in 2026.
Data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) showed that electricity generation dropped to zero megawatts, while power supply to all 11 distribution companies was completely cut off at about 1 p.m.
The affected distribution companies include Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abuja and Yola, all of which recorded zero load allocation at the time of the outage.
The incident comes months after a series of grid failures in 2025, with the most recent occurring on December 29.
These repeated breakdowns have persisted despite ongoing efforts to strengthen and expand the country’s power infrastructure.
Earlier, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) announced the restoration of an additional 450 megawatts to the national grid following the completion of maintenance work at the Geregu National Integrated Power Project plant.
In another move aimed at improving system stability, NISO disclosed that on November 9, 2025, it collaborated with the West African Power Pool Information and Coordination Centre to carry out a synchronisation test linking Nigeria’s grid with the broader West African electricity network.