By Samuel Akpan
Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, has tasked the newly inaugurated board of NEMSA with exceeding expectations to drive a total overhaul of Nigeria’s electricity landscape.
At the Tuesday ceremony held in the Ministry’s conference room covered by Persecondews, Adelabu told board members that their responsibilities go “far beyond routine regulation,” signaling a new era of strict oversight and strategic leadership for the agency.
“NEMSA your task is not only for regulatory oversight but to provide usher in an era of electrical safety, enhance service delivery, quality assurance and regulatory compliance across the power sector value chain,” he said.
The Minister emphasized that collaborative efforts are the backbone of the sector’s reform, necessary for improving efficiency and guaranteeing reliable power.
He highlighted the impact of the Electricity Act 2023, which has decentralized the industry.
With 17 states already taking advantage of these new opportunities, Adelabu signaled that local governments will soon join the effort to localize power solutions.
The minister also called for urgent local manufacturing to strengthen the industry and ease pressure on the naira.
“In the coming years we are looking at importing 5 million meters, if we boost and structure local production we would not import,” Adelabu noted.
Pointing to Nigeria’s rich natural resources as the way forward, he also said:“In Nasarawa state we have abundant of Lithium, so in the nearest future Nigeria shouldn’t be importing batteries to power houses or solar.
“Local production should be top on the burner as we move forward.”
Persecondnews recalls that President Bola Tinubu had appointed seasoned technocrat Mrs. Ikechi Nwosu as NEMSA Chairman on February 2026.
In her remarks, the new chairman identified workforce training as the biggest immediate challenge.
“The huge challenge we have now is train the work force, the amount of work ahead of us is huge, we have had big fire incidents in Lagos and Kano Market going forward we look at reducing this incident to zero,” Nwosu said.
She added that Nigeria’s booming commercial environment demands constant vigilance.
“Nigeria is a large country and commercially minded, we commercial activities springing up everyday so NEMSA has to ensure the safety of the business environment across the power sector value chain.”
Nwosu also outlined plans for a nationwide safety drive, saying: “We are taking our awareness campaign to every part of the country which is a big challenge but we have the blueprint to navigate every state and communicate with Nigeria with their native language,” she affirmed.
The agency traces its roots to 2013 when it began as the Electricity Management Services Limited (EMSL), one of the successor companies created under the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005.
It was formally established in 2015 by the NEMSA Act (now incorporated into the Electricity Act 2023).
Its core mandate is to enforce technical standards, carry out inspections, testing and certification of all electrical installations, meters and instruments, thereby ensuring efficient production and delivery of safe, reliable and sustainable electricity while protecting lives and property across the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
NEMSA was created precisely to tackle decades of substandard equipment and materials flooding the market, coupled with widespread vandalism, poor construction practices and inadequate maintenance throughout generation, transmission, distribution and utilisation.
The persistent technical failures had held back the power sector’s growth, prompting the Federal Government to set up an independent, professional agency dedicated to closing those critical gaps.
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