The sum is 17 times the amount the government announced it would spend on the power sector, and four and a half times the country's oil savings.

But the panel's chairman Rilwanu Lukman told journalists the power generation in the country had dropped to 1,800 megawatts (MW), from a capacity of 3,500MW.

He also said even if the country's power stations were working at full capacity, the transmission grid was broken down and neglected.