The Federal Government has paid N1.23 trillion out of the N3.3 trillion debt owed to electricity generation companies, as part of efforts to address financial challenges affecting Nigeria’s power sector.

The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this while speaking to State House correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

According to the minister, the payment forms part of the government’s ongoing efforts to tackle the financial difficulties that have affected electricity generation and gas supply to power plants.

He explained that the outstanding debt has contributed to challenges in securing the gas required by generation companies to produce electricity.

Tegbe said the government’s intervention was aimed at improving liquidity within the electricity market and addressing longstanding financial obligations that have hindered the sector’s performance.

Beyond settling the debt, the minister said the government was also working to improve the use of existing power infrastructure and strengthen the national electricity grid through targeted investments in transmission facilities.

He disclosed that the Federal Government plans to increase the country’s electricity transmission capacity from its current level of about 5,000 megawatts to approximately 19,000 megawatts.

According to him, expanding transmission infrastructure is essential to improving grid stability and ensuring that more electricity generated by power plants can be transmitted to consumers across the country.

The government’s efforts are expected to address some of the financial and infrastructural challenges affecting electricity supply, although the impact on consumers will depend on how effectively the planned interventions are implemented.