Nigeria's GDP Grows 4.43% Amid Power Sector Decline

In the second quarter of 2026, Nigeria's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) experienced a year-on-year growth of 4.43%, an increase from 4.23% in Q2 2025 and 3.89% in Q1 2026. However, this growth was overshadowed by a significant contraction in the electricity, gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply sector, which declined by 10.63% in real terms.

Despite overall economic growth, the power sector struggled, with installed capacity at 13,625 megawatts (MW) from 28 grid-connected power plants, while average available generation capacity was only 4,454.17 MW, indicating a plant availability factor of 32.69%. This resulted in 67.31% of installed capacity being unavailable on average during the quarter.

Average hourly generation was recorded at 4,022.40 megawatt-hours per hour (MWh/h), with total generation for the quarter at 8,784.93 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Compared to Q1, average hourly generation fell by 2.20%, and total generation decreased by 1.11%.

The generation load factor was 90.31%, suggesting that the shortfall was due to limited available capacity rather than under-utilization of operational plants.