The Federal Government has commenced efforts to clear more than 300 containers of electricity equipment that have remained stranded at Nigerian ports for between 14 and 20 years, following a directive by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to unlock critical infrastructure assets and strengthen the country’s struggling power sector.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, disclosed the development after the October 28 Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, describing the prolonged abandonment of equipment procured to support electricity infrastructure as unacceptable. He attributed the delay largely to unpaid port charges and unresolved clearance procedures, which he said previous administrations failed to address.
Following the presidential directive, the Ministry of Power is working with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Ministry of Finance to resolve the outstanding bottlenecks. The NCS has confirmed receiving a directive from the Finance Ministry and commenced the process of expediting the release of the containers, according to its spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada.
However, the release of the equipment does not automatically translate into immediate deployment. Tegbe explained that technical experts would first inspect the materials to establish their condition, identify serviceable items for deployment to ongoing electricity projects and determine those that have become obsolete and require appropriate disposal.
The development raises important questions about the circumstances surrounding the prolonged abandonment, the original cost of the equipment, accumulated demurrage and other port charges, and the extent of public resources lost through the delay. Government has yet to disclose the total value of the stranded materials, outstanding liabilities or a definitive timeline for completing their clearance.
The intervention comes amid wider efforts to strengthen electricity transmission infrastructure, including proposed East and West Super Grids intended to raise transmission capacity from approximately 5,000MW to 19,000MW within two years.
Ultimately, beyond clearing the containers, Nigerians will expect transparency, accountability and measurable improvements in electricity infrastructure to justify the recovery exercise.