India and Nigeria: An Overview of Power Sector Reforms and Performance

Abstract

India and Nigeria have been experiencing rapid economic and population growth which eventually led to massive increase in demand of power. This has put so much stress on the two countries’ power sectors making their governments to implement policies and reforms aimed at tackling the challenges. India was able to transform its power sector with the enactment of the Electricity Act 2003. The Electricity Act has succeeded in opening the generation and the distribution sectors for private sector participation. This eventually led to massive increase in the country’s generation and transmission capacities which ultimately placed India as the third biggest producer of electricity in the world in 2014. Nigeria which started its reform in 2005 with the adoption of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 is still experiencing enormous challenges in its power sector. This paper examined the policies and reforms implemented in the two countries and compared their overall performance in terms of capacity and efficiency. This will serve as a guide to policy makers in Nigeria and other developing countries that have enormous energy sources but are still experiencing power shortages.

Keywords: India; Nigeria; Energy sources; Polices and reforms.