Nigeria has been plunged into widespread darkness once again following the collapse of the national electricity grid, marking the second system failure in 2026 and triggering a nationwide blackout that disrupted economic and social activities across the country.
The latest incident caused a sharp drop in power generation to near zero, forcing electricity distribution companies to shut down supply to customers nationwide.
Several distribution companies, including those in Abuja, Ikeja, Eko, Ibadan, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and Yola, confirmed the outage in separate notices, stating that efforts were underway to restore supply in collaboration with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The grid collapse occurred in the early hours of Tuesday across the national transmission network, when multiple transmission lines reportedly tripped, leading to a total system failure and cutting off electricity to homes, businesses and critical infrastructure nationwide.
Although the exact cause of the failure has not been officially disclosed, power sector experts attributed the incident to persistent challenges such as ageing infrastructure, weak transmission capacity, gas supply constraints and operational instability.
The development comes just days after the national grid recorded its first collapse of the year on January 23, 2026, renewing concerns over the fragility of Nigeria’s power sector.
Businesses and households have again been forced to rely heavily on generators, increasing operating costs amid rising fuel prices and inflation.
Stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to fast-track critical reforms, upgrade transmission infrastructure and strengthen grid management to reduce the frequency of system failures.
