Nigeria cuts electricity supply to Niger Republic as Ecowas seeks to remove military junta

NIGERIA has severed power supply to her northern neighbour Niger Republic in response to the recent military coup in the country and the refusal of the generals who seized power to heed calls to stand down and restore constitutional order.

On July 26, officers of the Nigerien presidential guard arrested President Mohammed Bazoum in the capital Niamey and declared him deposed. In response, on Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), met in Abuja and introduced sanctions against the regime, suspending it and freezing Niger Republic's assets.

Ecowas leaders, led by Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, gave the generals a one-week ultimatum to restore constitutional order. To enforce this, they announced the suspension of financial transactions with Niger and decreed the freezing of all service transactions, including energy transactions.

Acting on this, Nigeria has cut its electricity supply to the Nigerien Electricity Company, popularly known as Nigelec. Nigeria exports electricity to the republics of Benin and Niger under transaction service agreements, with Nigelec being supplied by Nigerian firm Mainstream Energy.

Nigeria exported about N23.13bn worth of electricity to some neighbouring countries in 2022 under the terms of a deal which prevents them from damning the River Niger. Negotiated in the 1960s by Nigeria's then prime minister Tafawa Balewa, he idea was to keep the volume of water in the River Niger high, so it could power Nigeria's hydro-electric power plant at Kainji.

These neighbours leave the river alone and in response, Nigeria exports electricity to Benin Republic through a Transcorp-SBEE deal and to Niger Republic under the terms of a Mainstream-Nigelec deal. SBEE is Société Beninoise d’Énergie Electrique, a Benin Republic power firm, while Nigelec, which is Société Nigérienne d’Electricité or Nigerien Electricity Society, is a power utility firm in Niger Republic.

Yesterday, Nigeria disconnected the high voltage line that carries electricity to Niger Republic quoted its source. According to a recent report by Nigelec in 2022, 70% of Niger’s electricity came from purchases from the Nigerian company Mainstream.

However, to free itself from its strong energy dependence on neighbouring Nigeria, Niger Republic is working to complete its first dam by 2025. Some 180km upstream from Niamey, the Kandadji dam should generate 629 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

Kunle Olubiyo, the president Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, said: “About 60% of power supply to Niger comes from Nigeria. Just like organised labour usually shuts down the national power grid as part of negotiations when all appeals might have failed to achieve results, Mr President is the leader of Ecowas  at the moment, so the disconnection of power supply is seen as a low-hanging fruit."