Chinedu Eze
The two major service providers in the aviation industry, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) spend over N34 billion on power from grid electricity annually.
Recent review from the Ministry of Aviation indicated that this is in addition to other sources of power, from power generators to renewable energy.
Two years ago, the ministry said Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) alone, consumes N1 billion worth of electricity monthly and additional high costs were incurred across other major travel hubs, with energy bills for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja also surpassing N1 billion annually.
To reduce the cost, FAAN has been working to restructure its aviation master plan to actively transition major international airports to solar energy.
The agency has also suffered heavily from running high-capacity diesel generators overnight during non-peak hours, when no active flights are scheduled, at a very huge cost. In fact, reports showed that recent capital investments by FAAN on alternative power include a N8.73 billion allocation explicitly dedicated to modernizing airport power infrastructure to optimise grid utilisation and systematically eliminate reliance on diesel fuel.
In the same vein, NAMA spends over N10 billion annually on power. Until recently it was using generators to power off grid installation located in different parts of the country. These installations provide safety critical services in the airspace; so, the power source that sustains the operations cannot be compromised.
To end the hiccups in power supply from the grid, NAMA has steadily invested hundreds of millions of naira into transitioning several of its primary air traffic control and navigational aid stations (including Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt) to solar power systems.
These challenges bring to the fore the summit on power, titled, ‘Energy Costs and Business Survival’, organized by the Lagos Country Club last week in the third edition of its Business Forum.
The major discourse at the summit was how Nigeria could provide reliable and stable electricity to bring down the huge resources organisations like FAAN and NAMA, big manufacturing companies, medium and small scale enterprises spend on electricity, which amplify the cost of products and services they provide.
Energy experts include Professor Barth Nnaji, former Minister of Power and Chairman/Chief Executive, Geometric Power; the Senior Energy Executive and Managing Partner, JDR Energy Limited, Ifeoma Ukabiala; the Executive Director JMG Limited and former President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Otunba Francis Meshioye and others, x-rayed the challenges business organisations face in Nigeria in terms of provision of power and its high costs.
Meshioye in his opening remarks observed that businesses could create jobs, support families, stimulate local production, generate government revenue, and drive national economic development.
He noted that when unsustainable energy costs put businesses under pressure, “we should turn the challenge from a threat to their survival, into an opportunity to rethink how Nigeria produces, consumes, and pays for energy.”
He said that Nigeria could get out of the present power conundrum by making informed decisions, embracing innovation, deploying efficiency, methodologies, adopting cleaner production technologies and fostering collaboration
The special guest of honour, Ifeoma Ukabiala, in her speech, painted a grim picture of what businesses go through in Nigeria due to inadequate supply of electricity and how the cost of power eat into the profitability of businesses.
“The facts are sobering. This January (2026), the national grid collapsed twice in five days, on the 23rd and the 27th, barely a month after another collapse in December. On a typical day, the grid carries four to five thousand megawatts, against more than twelve thousand megawatts of installed capacity.
“Our manufacturers spent about N1.35 trillion on alternative power in 2025, up 23 per cent in one year. Our Chairman, Otunba Francis Meshioye, knows this burden better than anyone from his years leading the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. And the association tells us that around 35 per cent of production cost now goes to energy. Across the whole economy, the World Bank has estimated that Nigerian businesses lose about $29 billion every year to unreliable electricity.
“Who feels it? Manufacturers, whose generators run the production lines. Small businesses, who tell us they spend over 40 per cent of their profit on alternative energy. Hotels, hospitals, cold rooms and clubs like this one, where reliability is the very product that we sell. But let us not forget the average Nigerian. He pays twice: tokens for the grid, then petrol for a small generator. Or he simply sits in the dark. And he is far from alone: according to the World Bank, nearly 87 million Nigerians have no access to electricity at all, more than in any
other country on earth. That person is your customer, and that person is your staff. When energy eats their income, they buy less. Business survival and household relief are the same conversation,” she said.
She emphasised that in many Nigerian businesses, the generator is the real ‘chairman’. Because it takes its share of the profit before anyone else is paid, and it never misses a board meeting.
“And the fuel bill is only what we can see. Behind it sit downtime, idle staff, damaged equipment, spoiled stock, and price increases that we cannot pass on. In many businesses, the hidden bill is bigger than the visible one,” Ukabiala added.
Nnaji insisted that for Nigeria to have stable electricity, government must allow cost reflective tariffs. That is, electricity providers must charge the tariffs that will bring return on their investment so that they will run profitable concerns or government should be ready to subsidize power. The later, he said, would be too costly. So, the key to stable power in Nigeria is for the federal government to allow cost reflective tariff so that investors can bring huge capital and invest in the sector.
Back to aviation, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria power the runways of the major airports in the country 24 hours. At critical periods they operate off grid and power those facilities with generators in order to avoid power outage during landing and take-off of airplanes in the night.
The NAMA need constant electricity supply to power most of its critical equipment. It relies heavily on stable, continuous power to prevent communication dropouts (often termed “blind spots”) between pilots and air traffic controllers. Because aircraft fly at all times of the day, any loss of electrical power threatens critical air safety systems.
Air traffic management needs constant electricity. So also, are the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) which provides radar services and captures every aircraft in the airspace.
The communication system, mobile and main control towers, voice communication system, very high frequency transceivers, voice recording system, navigational aids, including instrument Landing System, need to be operating for 24 hours.
What the forum on power encapsulated last week was that currently Nigerians are spending too much money to get electricity; yet, they are not getting adequate supply. For there to be stable power supply, the industry must be made attractive to investors by making investment in the sector profitable.