The Nigerian National Power Grid collapsed on Friday leaving many parts of the country in darkness and disrupting electricity supply to millions of households and businesses.

According to local media reports on Saturday, electricity generation dropped sharply from over 4,500 megawatts to as low as 24 megawatts as of 1:30 pm.

The reports added that all the 23 power generation plants connected to the grid reportedly lost output during the incident, resulting in zero power allocation to each of the 11 electricity distribution companies.

The cause of the collapse could not be immediately determined, and officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria had yet to issue a detailed statement at the time of filing this report.

The grid collapse is the first recorded in 2026, coming barely weeks after a similar incident on December 29, 2025, which had also caused widespread power outages across the country.

Grid collapses are common features in the Nigerian power sector and some stakeholders have often attributed the collapse to inadequate maintenance of transmission lines and fluctuations in generation capacity.

The stakeholders have continued to call on the Nigerian government and power operators to implement robust contingency measures to prevent recurring failures.

Meanwhile, power was restored in some parts of Lagos and a number of states in the night after several hours of blackout in the country.

GIK/APA