Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, revealed on Wednesday that the Federal Ministry of Power did not receive any capital funding in the 2025 budget. However, he stated that this did not prevent the ministry from fulfilling its regulatory and supervisory duties in the electricity industry.
Adelabu promised better performance in 2026 and reassured parliamentarians that the Federal Government has taken measures to prevent the fiscal failures that hindered the implementation of the 2025 capital budget.
While lamenting that the non-release of capital funds slowed activities across ministries, departments, and agencies, the minister expressed confidence that the situation would not recur during the budget defense session before the Senate Committee on Power at the National Assembly in Abuja.
He said that even though wages and overheads were properly executed, the ministry’s capital spending performance for 2025 was zero because there were no financial releases.
The budget is made up of three parts, he explained: capital expenditures, overhead expenses, and salaries and wages. We recorded zero percent on the capital component, but we achieved 100 percent on the first two. Nonetheless, the ministry has agencies that are able to continue their operations and make money on their own. We were able to weather the year much more easily because of this.
Adelabu emphasized that the ministry continued to oversee agencies and promote sector reforms in spite of the financial limitations.
He informed the parliamentarians that the nation’s system was comparatively steady in 2025, with only one outage, which he ascribed to vandalism and a disruption in the gas supply.
In 2024, when budget performance was much better, we had roughly four disturbances and one complete grid failure. But in 2025, when we received nothing, we only noted one disruption, which occurred in the Niger Delta due to an explosion and vandalism that impacted the gas supply,” he said.
“Investments made to stabilize the grid allowed us to weather this challenge,” the minister continued. Therefore, it is untrue that the country was plunged into darkness in 2025 as a result of our lack of funding.
Underinvestment, inadequate infrastructure, and financing shortages have long plagued Nigeria’s power sector, with succeeding administrations finding it difficult to strike a compromise between budgetary restraints and the requirement for significant capital infusions into generating, transmission, and distribution.
The sector’s capital expenditures are essential for increasing grid capacity, fortifying transmission networks, and enhancing access to electricity. Project execution is frequently slowed down and reform results are compromised when budget distributions are delayed.
To speed up implementation, Adelabu revealed that a portion of the capital allocation would be made available in the first quarter of 2026, notwithstanding the 2025 setback.
About 30% of the 2026 capital budget is anticipated to be made available to the ministry by the end of March, he stated, with the other 70% being implemented during the course of the year. The federal government is making every effort to prevent the fiscal miscalculation that impacted the 2025 budget’s execution in 2026.
The minister pointed out that the guarantee was consistent with President Bola Tinubu’s pledge to enhance budget performance in all important economic sectors.
Earlier in his speech, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, characterized budgeting as an essential tool for guaranteeing accountability, transparency, and efficient management of the public sector.
He stated that ministries, departments, and government organizations are required to present their yearly revenue projections and budget estimates to the National Assembly for approval in light of this.
Abaribe emphasized how crucial the electrical industry is to economic expansion, industrialization, and diversification. He also said the committee would continue to monitor approved budgets to make sure they are implemented effectively.
As everyone knows, the electricity industry is essential to an economy’s ongoing success, especially during a time of fast global development and economic diversity. In order to guarantee the actual execution of agreed budgets and pinpoint issues that need for legislative backing, the committee will keep interacting with the ministry,” he stated.
Mamuda Mamman, the ministry’s permanent secretary, and other high-ranking officials joined the minister.
Following the Electricity Act’s passage, which decentralized the industry and gave states more authority over power generation and distribution, the development coincides with continuing changes intended to strengthen Nigeria’s electricity value chain.
According to data, during the first seven months of 2025, MDAs got less than N1 trillion for capital projects.
The January–July pro rata benchmark was N10.81 trillion, but N18.53 trillion was allocated for capital spending for “MDAs and others” in 2025, according to a study of data from the Budget Office of the Federation’s Medium-Term spending Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (2026–2028).
However, only N834.80 billion was actually released as capital to MDAs and associated organizations throughout that time. This resulted in a performance rate of only 7.72 percent throughout the seven-month period and a pro rata deficiency of around N9.98 trillion.
The overall capital picture was also poor. With a pro rata projection of N13.67 trillion by July, the total capital expenditure for 2025 was estimated to be N23.44 trillion. All things considered, actual capital spending was N3.60 trillion, which was 73.7% less than the pro rata baseline.
The 2025 capital expenditure budget was deemed inadequate by the MTEF/FSP document, which stated: “Capital expenditure implementation was notably weak.” Out of the N10.81 trillion pro-rata capital budget, only N834.80 billion had been distributed to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, indicating a performance of less than 10% throughout the review period.
