Photo Credit: The Sun Nigeria / Arise TV
High Power Costs Remain Biggest Threat to Nigeria’s Industrial Growth – Minister Enoh
Minister of State for Industries, Senator John Enoh, has said that inadequate and expensive electricity supply remains the single biggest challenge confronting Nigeria’s industrial sector.

Speaking on Arise TV, Enoh said despite showing resilience, manufacturers are forced to spend huge sums to self-generate power, which significantly raises the cost of doing business.

“Our challenge is to make sure that while industry and manufacturers demonstrate that kind of resilience, they are able to achieve that with lower cost,” the Minister said.

He noted that while the country’s 4.43% real GDP growth in Q2 2026 is encouraging, the government must sustain reforms to lower operational costs for businesses. He disclosed that manufacturing growth improved to 3.24% in Q2 2026 from 1.66% in Q2 2025, recording two consecutive quarters of growth.

Enoh identified poor infrastructure and logistics as other major constraints facing manufacturers. To address this, he said the Ministry is working with the African Development Bank (AfDB) on a $368 million facility to support about 70 industrial clusters across the country.

On power solutions, he said the Federal Government is adopting a blended energy model that combines grid power, gas, and renewable energy to improve supply to industrial clusters. He cited the Otun industrial cluster, whose groundbreaking is scheduled for next week, as a model for solving the energy challenge.

The Minister also reacted to the Federal Government’s target of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, saying Nigeria has all it takes to achieve and even surpass the target, but stressed that manufacturing and value addition will be critical.

“We’re not going to achieve that without production. We’re not going to achieve that without value addition,” he said.

He added that the government is addressing challenges facing MSMEs, including access to long-term affordable financing, bureaucracy, regulatory bottlenecks, and skills gaps. According to him, the Bank of Industry disbursed about ₦50 billion in 2025, raised about ₦250 billion in 2026, with a target of ₦1 trillion.

Enoh further revealed that the Ministry has activated the five strategic objectives of the Nigerian Industrial Policy in its first 90-day implementation report, while 31 companies with about 220 products have secured African quality mark certification to boost competitiveness of Nigerian products.
Source: The Sun Nigeria