ABUJA — The Federal Government has initiated a comprehensive regulatory review of the $1.3bn Zungeru Hydropower Project in Niger State with a targeted operational objective to elevate the facility’s electricity output to its full 700-megawatt (MW) installed capacity.
The regulatory intervention was disclosed on Thursday, October 8, 2026, by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), following findings that the strategic hydroelectric facility is currently operating at roughly half-capacity, delivering only about 350MW to the national grid.
ICRC Director-General Dr. Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh convened a high-level inter-agency alignment meeting featuring key public and private energy sector stakeholders—including the concessionaire Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and the Federal Ministry of Power—to resolve technical, contractual, and grid-evacuation bottlenecks.
Dr. Ewalefoh emphasized that optimizing national energy generation remains a central pillar of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic growth agenda, asserting that major public-private partnership assets cannot be permitted to operate below designed capacities while domestic households and commercial industries suffer power deficits.
To unlock the facility’s full potential, the regulatory commission established a dedicated technical committee tasked with resolving transmission evacuation constraints, reviewing concession obligations, and delivering a binding operational roadmap within two weeks.
The government further confirmed that similar performance and compliance audits will be rolled out across five other major hydroelectric power plants nationwide to ensure total alignment with national energy security goals.
