The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to setting the power sector on the path of sustainability and bankability, by prioritising the different reforms being undertaken in the sector. This is critical to the economic growth and development of the nation.

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu disclosed this on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at the Mission 300 Stakeholders Engagement meeting, held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, where he announced that the estimated investment required for the Mission 300 Compact is $32.8 billion, with $15.5 billion expected from the private sector. The Mission is to provide electricity to 300million unserved people in Africa.

He said the stakeholders meeting would provide an opportunity for them to align, strategize, and to build the partnerships needed to move from Nigeria Energy Compact, to concrete results, as he called on development partners, the private sector, philanthropic actors, the public sector, and the civil society organizations to rally around this mission.

“Mobilizing this level of financing will demand innovation, coordination, and a shared commitment.

“In this room today are many of the institutions and individuals who can help us shape the future of Nigeria’s energy sector. Let us take this opportunity to ask hard questions, identify the practical solutions, and develop actionable plans that will make universal access a reality not just in the policy space, but in the daily lives of our citizens by powering our hospitals, our schools, our industries, and our homes”, Adelabu said.

He announced the priorities of the government in power sector reforms to include “adressing the market liquidity issues and initiating required sector reforms”.

“Currently”, he added, “there’s a huge outstanding debt to the Power Generation companies in the form of unpaid government subsidies which stands at about ₦4trn as of December 2024. The Federal Government is already working out modalities to defray this obligation and to ensure that further obligations are not accrued going forward, the government is working on a plan to transition the sector to a fully cost-reflective regime while implementing targeted subsidies for the economically vulnerable citizens in the country.

“Improving our power generation through recovery of idle capacities and expanding energy mix to ensure energy security, and to dilute the power pool with cheaper and cleaner energy sources”.

Other areas he identified included “Expanding transmission infrastructure to deliver more power, ensuring stability of the national grid to put and end to several grid disturbances and collapses previously observed on the grid, and to further strengthen the coordination and management of the national grid.

“Ensuring viability and performance improvement of the distribution segment of the power sector through strategic programs like the Presidential Metering Initiative and the World Bank-funded Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP)”.

The Minister also said that the Power Ministry is pursuing increased renewable energy through its rural electrification and energy transition drive, to provide a reliable power supply to unserved and underserved communities.

Through its training institute, the Ministry is also working to improve human capital and local content development in the sector to reduce import dependence, stimulate jobs, and build a homegrown energy industry.

“I assure you”, he continued “that the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is fully committed to this vision and through the Federal Ministry of Power, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, we will continue to champion reforms, promote innovation, and partner with all stakeholders to deliver a sustainable energy future”.

He expressed the appreciation of the Federal Government to the World Bank Group under the leadership of Mr Ajay Banga and the African Development Bank under the leadership of the out going Managing Director of the Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), and Sustainable Energy for All for taking on this mission to connect 300 million people across Africa to electricity by the year 2030 through the Mission 300 initiative, saying, “this ambition reflects our shared belief that energy access is a fundamental issue that must be urgently addressed to unlock economic potential of the continent”.

According to Adelabu, in January 2025 at the Dar es Salaam Africa Energy Summit, President Tinubu joined eleven other African Heads of State in endorsing the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration and formally committing to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Mission 300.

“We presented our National Energy Compact, a bold statement of intent and ambition to fast-track access to both electricity and clean cooking for all Nigerians with the aim of achieving universal access by 2030 by increasing the rate of electricity access from 4 percent to 9 percent per annum and raising access to clean cooking from 22 percent to 25 percent per annum”, he said.

The Minister of Finance, Chief Wale Edun, who spoke through zoom from Brazil also said that the reforms the government was undertaking in the power sector were critical towards unlocking the full potentials of the economy as it would lead to job creation. He said the reforms have led to over 40 percent increase in power distribution in the first quarter of 2025.

Present at the meeting were the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Geoffrey Nnaji, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, the World Bank Officers, head of agencies in the Power Ministry, and partners of the sector.

The Senate has rejected allegations by the House of Representatives that it has been stalling legislative progress by delaying concurrence on bills passed by the lower chamber.

During the plenary on Tuesday, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, clarified the Senate’s position, underpinning that the upper chamber has been diligent in attending to bills forwarded by the House.

Responding to recent claims that the Senate had failed to act on over 140 House-passed bills, including several sponsored by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, the Senate leader disclosed that the Senate considered no fewer than six concurrence bills just last week.

The Senate President said, “We cannot joke with concurrence bills from the House of Representatives, we are committed to working together in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. It takes two hands to clap.”

This reaction by the Senate leadership followed a slight tension experienced at the House of Representatives last week when members of the green chamber resolved to suspend further consideration of bills originating from the Senate, citing what it described as persistent delays in legislative concurrence from the red chamber.

But Bamidele, while presenting one of the bills from the House during plenary on Tuesday, explained that the Senate has remained consistent in processing concurrence bills in line with constitutional responsibilities.

He said, “For the record, we have been doing what we are supposed to do. Only last week, the Senate concurred on six bills from the House of Representatives. We know we have the principle of reciprocity that governs our operations, but this does not necessarily mean garbage in, garbage out.

“We have the duty, as the foremost democratic institution in the country, to exercise due diligence on the bills. We will continue to consider concurrence bills from the House of Representatives in the same way they considered our bills. We will ensure that it is given attention in overriding public interest. I just want to say this for the record.”

The leadership assured the public that the Senate remained committed to a productive and cooperative relationship with the House of Representatives, underscoring that legislative harmony is essential for national progress.

Justice Maryann Anenih of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday, fixed July 17 for ruling on an application filed by the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello seeking to travel out of the country on health grounds.

At the resumed hearing of the money laundering case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against the former governor, his counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, told the court that he had filed an application, dated 19th June, 2025 and filed on June 20, 2025.

“It seeks an order for the release of the 1st defendant/applicant’s international passport by the Registrar of the court to enable him to travel for medical attention,” he said.


The counsel said the application was predicated on 13 grounds in the face of the motion paper and supported by 22 paragraphs affidavit deposed to by Yahaya Bello himself.

The EFCC Counsel had filed a counter-affidavit, saying granting the request could delay further proceedings.

Daudu, SAN, in response to the prosecution team’s counter-affidavit, said the Defendant’s team had also filed a further affidavit of 20 paragraphs, filed on July 7, 2025, and deposed to by the applicant himself with two exhibits.

“Exhibits C is the Certified True Copy of the ruling of your lordship, admitting the defendant to bail and Exhibit D is the ruling of the Federal High Court also admitting him to bail.

“We adopt these documents in urging your lordship to grant our application,” he stated.

Responding to the Prosecution’s argument that the application was an abuse of court process in the sense that a similar application was filed at Federal High Court, Daudu argued that it could not be an abuse of court process.

He hinged his argument on the fact that it was the complainant that instituted the two separate charges in the separate courts.

“It will be a futile exercise to apply in one court and not to apply in the other court,” Daudu, SAN submitted.

The prosecution counsel, Chukwudi Enebele, SAN, while defending the EFCC’s counter-affidavit, said Yahaya Bello should have put his sureties on notice with regard to his application to travel out of the country.

According to him, the sureties need to decide whether they would want to continue to stand as sureties for him when he travels.

He added that by filing the same application at both the FCT High Court and Federal High Court, the Defendant’s Counsel were setting the courts on a collision course.

“If Federal High Court refuses that application and my lord grants it, it will make mockery of our Judicial system,” the EFCC lawyer argued.

Responding, Daudu SAN said, on the issue of suretyship, the sureties were already aware.

“We need not put them on notice,” he said.

“Finally, on the interpol matter, Daudu said that the issue of Interpol likely to arrest the applicant is a dead argument, the applicant having submitted himself for trial.

“He has never flouted your lordship’s order. They themselves have even forgotten about those red alerts,” the lawyer added, urging the court to grant the application.

After listening to both parties, Justice Anenih adjourned the case to July 17, 2025 for ruling.