The Federal Government has earmarked N7bn for the ongoing solarisation of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in a bid to address Nigeria’s persistent power supply challenges, The PUNCH reports.
The allocation is contained in the 2026 Appropriation Bill submitted to the National Assembly in December, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent.
According to the budget proposal, under the State House Headquarters, N7bn was set aside for the “solarisation of the Villa with solar mini-grid”.
The PUNCH reported last year that N10bn was allocated for the same project in the 2025 budget.
The solarisation of the Villa suggests that the Federal Government may be joining other institutions that have resorted to alternative power sources amid the collapse of the national grid. It could also reduce energy costs by cutting reliance on diesel-powered generators.
The Federal Government had earlier faced widespread criticism after reports emerged in 2025 that N10bn was allocated for a solar power project at Aso Rock.
However, the Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Mustapha Abdullahi, was said to have defended the project, stating that it was unsustainable for the Presidential Villa to continue paying an annual electricity bill of about N47bn.
According to him, the solar power installation would deliver uninterrupted and clean energy while ultimately reducing pressure on the national grid.
In the 2026 budget proposal, the State House also earmarked N311m for electricity charges.
The PUNCH further learnt that the State House spent a total of N483.34m on electricity bills in 2024, representing a 40.17 per cent increase from the N344.82m spent in 2023.
Similarly, N1.99bn was allocated for plant and generator costs and N22.23m for cooking gas, while N156.66m was earmarked for fuelling motor vehicles.
Speaking on TVC News on Tuesday, the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, said Nigeria has the highest number of people without access to electricity globally.
According to Aliyu, over 82 million Nigerians live in unserved or underserved areas, adding that the government had identified these communities and the most cost-effective means of providing them with electricity.
In the Appropriation Bill, the Federal Government allocated over N1.1tn to the power sector, higher than the N900bn budgeted in 2025.
A breakdown of the proposal shows that the Ministry of Power received N1,107,103,148,958. Of this amount, capital expenditure accounted for N1.09tn, personnel costs stood at N4.21bn, while overhead costs were N6.17bn.
The Ministry of Power headquarters was allocated N418.86bn, while the Rural Electrification Agency received the highest allocation of N504.77bn. The Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency got N6.1bn, the National Power Training Institute received N20.72bn, N2.11bn was set aside for the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Limited, while the Transmission Company of Nigeria was allocated N154.52bn.
However, stakeholders raised concerns that a detailed examination of the budget showed no explicit allocation for electricity tariff support or subsidy payments, estimated by operators at about N200bn monthly.
Reacting, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Joy Ogaji, said the “omission” highlighted the level of priority accorded to the power sector.
Ogaji said the development suggested a shift away from explicit budgetary recognition of the revenue shortfall, effectively transferring the financial burden to operators across the value chain, particularly generation companies and gas suppliers, who currently receive about 34 per cent of market payments amid delayed remittances and rising sector debts.
