Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima urged state governments to use powers under the Electricity Act 2023 to establish intrastate electricity markets, build regulators and attract private investment. According to a Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation report published on October 21, the call came at the opening of a national stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja. Shettima was not reported as attending in person: his remarks were delivered on his behalf by Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President.

The Act allows states to develop and regulate electricity markets within their boundaries under the applicable constitutional and statutory framework. Shettima said states have differing resource and demand profiles and called for solar, gas and hydropower potential to be turned into investment serving agriculture, manufacturing, health care and education. Legal authority alone does not create those outcomes. The ministry report also stresses that states need regulatory institutions, technical capacity and commercially viable markets.

The vice-president proposed a National Electricity Reform Peer Review and Implementation Framework bringing together the federal regulator NERC, the Federal Ministry of Power, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and state regulators. The proposed voluntary mechanism would include annual reviews of market development, investment readiness, consumer protection and access, with the aim of enabling states to share experience and identify technical assistance needs. The announcement does not say that the framework has been established or identify participating states.

A NERC compliance official told the workshop that the commission had issued regulatory transfers to 17 states, with Akwa Ibom the most recent. That is not a count of functioning state markets: the ministry report does not give state-by-state information on licensing, tariff approval, infrastructure, connections or service quality. A representative of the Governors’ Forum said work was under way on a standard tariff framework intended to balance investment with consumer protection. The report did not say a draft framework had taken effect.

Shettima argued that government budgets alone could not finance the electricity infrastructure transformation and called for private capital to bring technology and expertise. He also called for predictable regulation, investment safeguards, dispute resolution and consumer protection against arbitrary billing and poor service. The announcement reported no new financing, investment amount, generation capacity or electricity-access outcome. The proposal’s effects would depend on states establishing institutions in practice, the quality of regulation and the service delivered to users in any new markets.