The Federal Government (FG) has begun recovering more than 300 containers of electricity equipment stranded at Nigerian ports, with the first 44 containers released from Apapa Port in Lagos following a directive by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to accelerate efforts to recover the long-idle assets.
Minister of Power, Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, disclosed the development after a recent Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, saying the intervention was aimed at making critical equipment available for electricity infrastructure projects.
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According to the Ministry of Power, some of the containers have remained at the ports since 2014, while others have been held up for even longer.
Their release follows efforts to resolve administrative and financial bottlenecks, including outstanding port charges and customs clearance procedures.
Tinubu had directed the Ministry of Power to work with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to facilitate the clearance of the equipment.
Tegbe described the release of the first batch as an important step towards recovering public assets and accelerating infrastructure development.
“The release of the first 44 containers represents significant progress in our determination to recover critical power assets and accelerate infrastructure development,” the minister said.
However, the equipment will not be deployed immediately. Technical experts are expected to inspect the recovered materials to establish their condition and determine whether they remain suitable for use.
Equipment found to be serviceable will be integrated into ongoing electricity projects, while damaged, obsolete or otherwise unusable items will be appropriately disposed of.
The clearance process is particularly significant given Nigeria’s persistent electricity infrastructure challenges and the need to strengthen the transmission network.
Equipment intended for power projects has, in some cases, remained at ports for years, delaying its availability for installation and use.
A report by LEADERSHIP on Thursday quoted NCS spokesperson Abdullahi Maiwada as confirming that Customs had received a directive from the Ministry of Finance to expedite the release of more than 300 containers of electricity equipment stranded at Nigerian ports.
Maiwada said the service had begun working on the clearance process, although he did not provide a detailed timeline for completing the exercise.
The latest intervention also follows a separate recovery exercise by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), which announced in March 2026 that it had initiated the recovery of 110 abandoned containers and 216 packages of critical power equipment.
According to the company, the materials had remained at Nigerian ports for nearly a decade after being procured by engineering, procurement and construction contractors for power plant projects.
Contractual and litigation-related challenges contributed to the prolonged delays.
The NDPHC said collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and support from the Controller-General of Customs helped secure the necessary waivers for the recovery.
The company’s Managing Director, Engineer Jennifer Adighije, subsequently disclosed that the recovery exercise had contributed to savings of more than ₦30bn within her first 100 days in office.
She also reported the recovery of turbines across the company’s power plants, contributing approximately 470 megawatts to the national grid.
The NDPHC exercise is separate from the Federal Government’s latest release of 44 containers, although both initiatives reflect efforts to recover electricity assets that have remained unused at Nigerian ports.
The problem of stranded power equipment is not new.
In July 2014, The Nation reported that the Federal Government had ordered an investigation into abandoned electricity equipment at Nigerian ports, following the release of 248 containers by Customs.
The report said some of the equipment had been imported years earlier and was intended for transmission and distribution projects across several states.
The renewed clearance effort therefore highlights a longstanding challenge in the power sector: the gap between procuring infrastructure equipment and ensuring that it reaches project sites in time for installation.
While recovering the containers could help reduce delays in ongoing projects, the eventual impact on electricity supply will depend on the condition of the equipment, the projects to which it is allocated and how quickly installation can be completed.
The Federal Government has not disclosed the total value of the more than 300 containers, the outstanding port charges involved or a definitive timeline for completing their clearance.
For electricity consumers, the development offers a potentially encouraging step towards improving infrastructure.
However, the release of the equipment should not be mistaken for an immediate increase in electricity supply, as further technical assessment, deployment and installation will be required.
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The Ministry of Power says its objective is to turn long-idle public assets into productive infrastructure capable of supporting electricity generation, transmission and distribution across the country.
