- Ministers and senior power sector stakeholders will meet in Lagos on Tuesday for a closed-door executive dialogue on Nigeria’s electricity reforms.
- The session will focus on collaboration, regulation, and investment challenges under the Electricity Act 2023.
Ministers, regulators, and industry players will meet in Lagos to discuss solutions to Nigeria’s power sector challenges. Smart-grid firm NOJA Power Australia will host a high-level executive dialogue on Tuesday, January 27. The dialogue aims to strengthen collaboration among states, regulators, distribution companies, and financiers. The organisers said the forum aligns with the new realities of the Electricity Act 2023.
The event is themed Effective Collaboration Between States, Regulators, and Distribution Companies: A Synergy for Sub-National Energy Security. It will also take place under the Akinwunmi & Busari LP ‘Let There Be Light’ Series. About 60 senior decision-makers will attend the closed-door session. Confirmed participants include the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu; the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun; and the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen.
State energy commissions, electricity regulators, distribution companies, development institutions, and investors will also take part. The organisers described the dialogue as a networking and policy engagement platform rather than a conventional conference. In addition, the goal is to encourage frank and solution-driven discussions around Nigeria’s decentralised electricity market.
The Electricity Act 2023 gives states new authority to participate in generation, transmission, and distribution. Stakeholders will examine risks arising from overlapping mandates, jurisdictional uncertainty. It will also examine coordination gaps between state institutions and distribution companies, and investor concerns around project bankability.
The programme will open with remarks from senior officials. NOJA Power will deliver the keynote and share international lessons on distribution reform, automation, and reliability improvement. The organisers said the event would feature two executive sessions.
Meanwhile, the first session is titled Resolving Regulatory Overlap in Nigeria’s Post-Electricity Act 2023 Power Market. It will explore frameworks for coexistence between state institutions and distribution companies. The panel will include the Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Biodun Ogunleye; the Ondo State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Johnson Alabi; the Managing Director of the Nigerian Independent System Operator, Abdu Bello Mohammed; the Managing Director of Kano Electricity Distribution Plc, Abubakar Jimeta; and the CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Musiliu Oseni. Chukwubuike Nnaeto will moderate the discussion.
Furthermore, the second session, De-Risking Power Infrastructure Investments Under the Electricity Act: The Lender’s Perspective, will focus on financing power sector reforms. Panellists will include Abdulqadir Dahiru, Head of Investment at the National Pension Commission; Olufemi Ogunseinde, Executive Director for Investment at the Ministry of Finance; Rotimi Akinde, Executive Director for Corporate Finance at the Bank of Industry; Demola Shogunle, Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers and Stanbic Pensions; and Abba Aliyu, Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency.
The organisers also said the closed-door format aims to encourage honest engagement and shared accountability across the sector. They added that effective reform requires regulation, investment, and operations to work in alignment so that policy translates to real improvements for citizens and businesses.