The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) has confirmed that Nigeria’s national electricity grid suffered a collapse, resulting in a total outage across the interconnected network,
In a preliminary statement issued on Friday, NISO said the grid suffered a system-wide disturbance on Friday, January 23, 2026, that occurred at about 12:40 p.m., when multiple 330kV transmission lines tripped simultaneously, alongside the disconnection of some grid-connected generating units. The combined failures led to the collapse of the national grid.
It was report that the company was plunged into widespread darkness on Friday following the collapse of the national electricity grid, the first such incident recorded in 2026.
The system failure occurred around 1 pm, when load allocation to all electricity distribution companies (DisCos) fell to zero.
Data obtained from the NISO showed that power generation dropped to zero megawatts (MW), leading to a total shutdown of electricity supply across the country.
A review of the national distribution load profile at the time of the incident indicated that all DisCos — including Abuja, Eko, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Jos, Kano, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Yola — recorded zero load, confirming a nationwide outage.
