A Nigerian businessman who controls 15% of the country’s electricity market has called for an overhaul of the grid to solve long-running problems with supply. Tony Elumelu, who controls several power sector companies, told Bloomberg in an interview that Nigeria needs more transmission lines and the electricity market needs more liquidity in order to reverse years of insufficient supply that is hampering economic growth.
So, while power generation increased, bringing the electricity to end consumers was hampered by the size of the grid. “Even where you generate electricity, the grid cannot take it, so it’s a problem for us,” Elumelu explained to Bloomberg. “I am advocating that let us privatize transmission lines.” The businessman, whose company Transcorp Power Ltd. went public this week with a valuation of $1.