Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu has raised alarm over a shortage of trained technicians in Nigeria’s power sector.
He said over 400,000 imported meters remain uninstalled due to a lack of certified installers.
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has revealed that more than 400,000 imported electricity meters remain unused because the country lacks enough trained hands to install them.
Speaking at the Nigeria Energy Conference in Lagos, Adelabu said the government brought in about 500,000 meters last month, yet fewer than 100,000 have been fixed due to a shortage of certified installers.
According to him, the situation exposes a serious human-capacity problem in the power sector. He noted that even if the federal government provided the six million meters required to close Nigeria’s metering gap, the nation would still struggle to install them within five years because of the shortage of skilled workers.
“We imported over half a million meters recently, and less than a fifth have been installed. The issue is not the meters but the lack of installers. This shows how our young people are unemployed yet undertrained,” he said.
Adelabu described the problem as part of a larger skill gap in the industry and called for urgent investment in technical training. He said the government was already expanding facilities at the National Power Training Institute to equip engineers, technicians, and field workers across the energy value chain.
He recalled that in the days of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), training programs were frequent and structured, but since the privatization of the sector, such programs have declined sharply.
“The last consistent round of training for engineers happened during the NEPA and PHCN era. Since private operators took over, very few have maintained the same standard,” he said.
The minister explained that new laboratories, simulators, and workshops have been launched with support from development partners to rebuild local expertise.
He added that the training will cover all areas, from gas supply and generation to renewable energy, transmission, and distribution, to ensure Nigeria has the manpower needed for its expanding energy network.
Adelabu stressed that without continuous technical development, reforms in the power industry would not succeed, urging both government and private players to invest more in skill development and local manpower.
