The South East Electricity Consumers Association (SEECA) has raised alarm over the worsening electricity crisis in Nigeria’s South-East, warning that the region is losing billions of naira due to persistent and unreliable power supply. The association has called on governors in the zone to shift greater attention toward electricity generation as a pathway to economic revival and industrial growth.
Speaking during a media interaction in Enugu at the weekend, SEECA’s coordinator, Sebastine Chukwuebuka Okafor, described the power situation as dire, noting that electricity consumers in the South-East have suffered estimated losses exceeding ₦28 billion within three months.
Okafor attributed the losses to prolonged outages caused largely by power generation challenges on the national grid. He explained that the erratic supply has severely disrupted economic activities across the region, particularly during the yuletide period when businesses typically experience peak demand.
According to him, many small and medium-scale enterprises have been forced to shut down as they can no longer cope with the high cost of alternative power sources such as generators and diesel. He stressed that electricity distribution companies should not bear the full blame, noting that they cannot distribute power that is not supplied to them.
The SEECA coordinator further revealed that the South-East receives only about seven per cent of Nigeria’s total electricity generation, a situation he described as structurally unfair and economically damaging. He emphasized that electricity remains the backbone of any modern economy, warning that unstable power supply leads to job losses, declining productivity, and deepening poverty.
Okafor criticised what he described as the overconcentration of South-East governors on electricity distribution rather than generation, calling the approach anti-people and anti-development. He argued that distributing scarce power only spreads frustration among consumers.
He maintained that the region possesses adequate human capital, gas resources, and interested private investors to support independent power generation projects. According to him, deliberate investment in local power generation would reduce dependence on the national grid, revive industries, create jobs, and place the South-East on a sustainable path to economic self-reliance.
