Lagos — Nigeria needs $500 billion investment in the power sector to achieve uninterrupted electricity supply the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said.

A $300 billion investment is also needed to attain 10,000Megawatts of power generation, the NERC's commissioner for Marketing, Competition and Rates, Eyo Ekpo said yesterday in Lagos.

In a paper titled 'Appropriate Pricing and the Future of Nigeria's Electricity Supply Industry' delivered at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group forum in Lagos, Mr Ekpo said government alone could not shoulder the financial needs of the power sector.

This call for the need to adjust electricity tariffs to woo investors into the sector. Issue of low penetration of meters; incidences of estimated billings and poor power supply will be adequately dealt with, he said.

According to him, "By 2017, lot more investment will be recorded in the power sector."

"The Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry will need an average of $20 billion per annum to achieve 7,500 megawatts, excluding domestic gas investments," he said.

He said despite the power sector reform, the sector was still being faced with lots of challenges such as the domestic gas market.