The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council has ranked the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency as the ninth best-performing federal agency in its 2025 performance assessment, with a score of 73.8 per cent.
The rating, released by PEBEC, was based on key performance indicators including efficiency and transparency in service delivery, adherence to service level agreements, ease-of-doing-business compliance, digital process adoption, complaint resolution, and overall public sector engagement.
According to the assessment, NEMSA’s performance reflects the effective implementation of technical standards in the power sector, improved business confidence, and enhanced safety outcomes.
The agency’s public sector reforms are focused on electrical safety and competency, certification, training, and strict adherence to regulations within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
The report noted that NEMSA’s mandate includes ensuring the deployment of skilled personnel, the proper use of equipment, competence in electrical installations and metering, as well as guaranteeing that contractors and personnel possess the requisite credentials and proven experience over a reasonable number of years.
While another power sector agency, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, recorded an average score of 58.3 per cent in the 2025 ranking, the report observed that the outcome had drawn significant attention among sector players and heads of agencies, prompting renewed efforts to strengthen core mandate delivery, performance, and public business engagement.
Reacting to the Presidential rating, the Managing Director of NEMSA, Aliyu Tahir, said the agency’s primary focus has remained the development and sustenance of technical standards as a core mandate, as well as ensuring safety and competence across the power sector.
He disclosed that in June 2025, NEMSA entered into a strategic partnership with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria to strengthen engineering regulations within the power sector.
According to him, the agency also launched a new digital inspection platform, the Integrated Technical Inspectorate Services Management Solution, in November 2025 to automate the inspection lifecycle from application to certification. Tahir said he personally oversaw post-deployment training for staff across the country.
The NEMSA chief executive added that the agency had forged a new partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit through the Nigerian Energy Support Programme, aimed at advancing Nigeria’s clean energy future.
He said NEMSA, in collaboration with the Rural Electrification Agency, had also embarked on state-by-state roundtable engagements, including one with Sokoto State focused on “Catalysing Investment in the Sokoto State Electricity Market,” while ensuring that safety standards are met for new installations.
Under Tahir’s leadership, the agency has intensified nationwide monitoring, testing, and inspection of electrical installations to ensure compliance with the Electricity Act 2023.
The Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, Engineer Aliyu Tukur Tahir, reiterated the agency’s commitment to enforcing safety, technical standards, and regulations. He identified key challenges in the sector, including grid instability caused by the indiscriminate use of 33kV feeders, lengthy enforcement processes, and non-compliance by some distribution companies.
To address these issues, he said relevant agencies had agreed to collaborate and fast-track enforcement through administrative sanctions where necessary.
Tukur disclosed that at least eight electricity distribution companies had so far been audited to ensure compliance with safety requirements. Speaking in Abuja, he said injuries and deaths linked to the power sector could be avoided if operators adhered strictly to NEMSA standards.
“When we did the analysis of all the incidents we’ve investigated so far, we discovered that most of the causes were due to lack of adherence to approved procedures and safety requirements,” he said, adding that outdated safety manuals used by some utilities had been reviewed and aligned with national health and safety codes.
He warned that the deployment of non-certified personnel posed serious risks, likening it to “wearing a time bomb,” and stressed that NEMSA certification is globally recognised.
Tukur also listed challenges facing the agency, including a lack of permanent office accommodation, inadequate funding, and understaffing, while disclosing that samples from the 3.2 million meters under the World Bank Distribution Sector Reform Programme were currently undergoing testing and certification.
It was gathered that the PEBEC initiative was designed to enhance and monitor the performance of federal agencies, retain and fund high-performing institutions, and identify non-performing ones. However, some agencies remain non-compliant with ease-of-doing-business requirements under the Business Facilitation Act.
