Blackout as National Grid Collapses Again

Nigeria experienced a nationwide blackout on Tuesday following the collapse of the national electricity grid for the second time in less than a week.

Real-time data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) indicated that power allocation to all 11 distribution companies (DisCos) fell to zero megawatts by 11 am on that day.

This latest incident comes just days after a similar failure occurred on Friday, January 23, 2026, marking the first grid failure of the year for the country.

Information obtained by TheCable revealed that electricity supply to all DisCos, including Benin, Eko, Enugu, Ikeja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abuja, and Yola, fell to zero, leaving millions of homes and businesses across the country in darkness.

The national grid has continued to suffer repeated system collapses, despite government assurances of improvement and various investments aimed at stabilising electricity transmission.

The latest collapse is reminiscent of the December 2025 incident, and analysts say it raises fresh concerns about the reliability of the national power infrastructure.

Just recently, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) announced that it had restored an additional 450MW to the grid following maintenance work at the Geregu National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plant.

The upgrade was expected to strengthen the grid’s performance and reduce the frequency of collapses. However, the latest incident suggests that the impact of that intervention has been either limited or short-lived.