Aliko Dangote has called for Nigeria to design, fabricate and build its own power infrastructure to achieve economic independence. Speaking at the Nigerian Academy of Engineering Fellows induction ceremony in Lagos, he stressed the need for homegrown solutions, saying, "We must build (the) power grids. I keep repeating, we must build it." Dangote revealed he no longer relies on the national grid, generating about 1,500 megawatts of electricity for his businesses instead. A 17 June 2024 BUSINESSDAY report noted Nigeria added only 760 megawatts to the national grid over 11 years. Charles Akinbobola, senior energy analyst at Sofidam Capital, attributed sector failures to managerial shortcomings, not lack of funds. Dangote's self-sufficiency contrasts with stalled public projects, including federal refineries undergoing repeated turn around maintenance. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is now considering a Technical Equity Partnership with Chinese firms. President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the 2018 Azikel Refinery foundation ceremony in Bayelsa, lamented that none of the 18 refinery licences he approved were actualized. The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise opposed a World Bank suggestion to sustain petrol imports, calling it misaligned with Nigeria's reform path. CPPE Director General Muda Yusuf cited improving foreign reserves, stable exchange rates and growing export capacity as reasons to consolidate local refining gains.
Dangote pushes for Nigerians to build their own power systems while running a 1,500MW private plant, exposing the gap between private capability and public inaction. The same government that failed to deliver on 18 refinery licences under Obasanjo now hesitates on power infrastructure despite trillions spent. When public projects stall for over a decade, private dominance in critical sectors becomes less a choice and more an inevitability. For ordinary Nigerians, the risk is not monopoly but total exclusion from energy access.
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