Joseph Tegbe Pushes for Better Electricity Supply, Modern Control Infrastructure

Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, has pointed to engagements with political stakeholders, advocacy groups, and industry players, along with the groundbreaking of an ultramodern National Control Centre, as proof the government is serious about fixing electricity delivery. According to Tegbe, the initiatives are part of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The value of a functioning control centre links to grid monitoring and coordination, sitting at the centre of reducing the outages Nigerians have lived with for years. Tegbe’s background sets him apart from several predecessors who entered the ministry without technical training. He holds a first-class honours degree in Civil Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and has advised both the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company. He also spent three decades as Senior Partner and Head of Advisory Services at KPMG Africa, work that exposed him directly to the kind of institutional restructuring Nigeria’s power sector still badly needs. His early moves have leaned cautious. Rather than promising nationwide 24-hour power, he launched a 24/7 Energy Zones pilot in Lagos, aiming to fix localised failures first before attempting anything at national scale. Of course, that caution has not shielded him from criticism. Tegbe’s ministry had to publicly deny reports that he promised to end grid collapses within three months, an early stumble that undercut his carefully built technocratic image. Moreover, some analysts question whether his boardroom instincts favour polished corporate responses over urgent crisis management. Centralised call centres for electricity complaints, one of his first announcements, struck several commentators as too small for the scale of the problem. A more awkward issue trails him politically. Tegbe ran for office before, including a 2019 Oyo governorship bid and a failed 2023 Senate run, switching parties along the way, a history that invites doubt about where his loyalties ultimately sit. The deepest obstacle, though, predates him. Nigeria’s power sector carries over N100 billion in legacy debt and entrenched energy theft, the same structural weight that has worn down every technocrat who came before him. All of this to say that with Tegbe, there is more to come. And a lot of it with careful thinking on his part.