Why ‘Detty December’ Should Stretch Nigeria’s Imagination, Not Its Infrastructure

By Joy Dawaki

Every December, Nigeria transforms into the cultural capital of the African continent, a vibrant phenomenon now famously coined “Detty December.” This period is no longer just a holiday season; it has evolved into one of Nigeria’s most significant and reliable economic engines, showcasing the nation’s immense cultural and economic potential.

In Lagos alone, the 2024 festive period drew an estimated 1.2 million visitors, nearly 90 per cent of them Nigerians from abroad returning home to reconnect and celebrate.  The economic impact was staggering: the halls of Murtala Muhammed Airport were packed, hotels ran at 95 per cent occupancy, short-lets surged, event centres were fully booked, and an entire ecosystem of food, music, transport, fashion, and nightlife roared to life.

Lagos State recorded N111.5 billion in tourism, hospitality, and entertainment revenue in that single month, while diaspora visitors injected over N60 billion directly into the local economy.

This was not an isolated spike. December has become a dependable season that sustains thousands of businesses across hospitality, aviation, events, logistics, digital media, and retail. Top nightclubs alone reportedly generated N4.32 billion, short-lets added N21 billion, luxury car rentals hit N1.5 billion, and beaches, restaurants, and resorts absorbed over 70 per cent of leisure spending. The creative economy from concerts to cinemas and influencer campaigns reached some of its highest annual earnings in December 2024, with FilmOne reporting N2.8 billion at the box office.

Across the country, the story was similar. In Calabar, the carnival season attracted over 300,000 tourists, filled 90 per cent of hotels, generated N2.79 billion in accommodation revenue, and transformed the city into a month-long festival economy.

Detty December does what few policies manage to achieve: It brings Nigerians home. It attracts Africans from across the continent. It unlocks massive seasonal employment. It deepens our cultural exports. And it injects billions into the economy.

But for all the light, colour and sound of December, one thing remains painfully clear: Nigeria’s party economy runs on shaky power.

December Boom Meets Fragile Grid

December is when Nigeria’s commercial heartbeat quickens. Hotels operate at full capacity, clubs run until morning, event centres host thousands, and short-lets flip their prices overnight. It is also when airports run at their busiest and Lagos carries the weight of hundreds of thousands of additional people moving through the city daily.

Every one of these sectors relies on a stable, uninterrupted power supply.

Yet Nigeria’s grid offers the opposite: Installed capacity: ~13,000 MW; Actual available power: 4,000–5,500 MW on a good day and Per Capita electricity supply: among the lowest globally.

This deficit means that the country operates on a fraction of its potential. The distribution system already struggles even under normal load, yet December is anything but normal.

Hotels and short-lets consume industrial-level electricity during the festive season. Nightclubs in Lagos can draw as much load as a small factory. Events with 3,000 to 20,000 attendees operate equipment, sound, lighting, cooling, all requiring high voltage stability. Restaurants, bars, cinemas, malls, and beaches experience spikes that push local feeders beyond their limits.

And so, we respond the only way we know how: With diesel; tired generators; rental generators and backup upon backup upon backup.

This has made the economic engine of December both powerful and precarious, thriving on revenue but burning through costs that, in a functioning system, could instead be profit.

The Hidden Cost of Unreliable Power

The strain shows up everywhere. A sudden blackout in the middle of a concert leaves concert goers panicked and in the dark. Sound systems crash mid-performance, forcing frantic, expensive fixes and denting the reputations of organisers who have invested heavily to get it right. Hotels and short-lets burn through diesel at a pace that often exceeds their payroll, while small food vendors lose stock the moment freezers go off. Nightclubs and lounges run generators almost without pause for 30 straight days, the hum of diesel becoming the unofficial soundtrack of the season.

For small businesses, these power failures can be existential. For larger operators, they amount to a heavy seasonal tax. For the country, they represent a vast pool of economic opportunity slipping through the cracks.

But the problem is not that Detty December is too big. It is that our infrastructure is too small.

December Is Not the Problem, It Is the Proof Point

The festive season reveals something important: Nigeria has market demand; Nigeria has diaspora pull; Nigeria has cultural capital; Nigeria has spending power and Nigeria has a global brand moment that other countries would kill for.

The only missing link is reliable energy. Look at what December already proves:   The crowds will come; the hotels will fill; the concerts will sell out; the fashion and beauty industries will boom;  airlines will increase capacity; restaurants will run out of seats; digital creators will flourish and the creative economy will thrive.

If all this is happening with unstable power, imagine what becomes possible when energy becomes a true enabler rather than a barrier.

A Season That Can Power Our Future

Nigeria needs a power system designed for a country that is growing, urbanising, digitalising, and economically active all year long. December exposes what everyday life already tells us: that the grid, in its current form, cannot support the scale of commerce, tourism, creativity and infrastructure that Nigeria is capable of unlocking.

This is where embedded generation, decentralised supply and commercial-grade reliability become non-negotiable. Rather than viewing December as an anomaly, it should be treated as a stress test, one that shows why cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Calabar need dedicated, independent, locally generated power serving their commercial hubs, airports, hospitality corridors, convention centres, malls and industrial clusters.

This is exactly the kind of infrastructure we are building at Elektron Energy: embedded power systems that sit close to demand, bypass long transmission losses, guarantee reliability, and ensure that critical commercial zones never go dark. It is a model that aligns with global best practice, strengthens local distribution networks, and gives cities the resilient backbone required to host large events, attract travellers, and power 24-hour economies.

State governments have an opportunity to think in this direction not with temporary December measures, but with long-term energy planning that prioritises commercial reliability. That means investing in sub-grid reinforcement, inviting private IPPs to develop embedded generation for high-demand districts, creating clear frameworks for C&I solar-gas hybrid solutions, and ensuring that hospitality clusters, entertainment arenas and airport corridors are plugged into stable, localised power sources. It is a shift from firefighting to foundational reform.

Potential and Possibility

Detty December is more than a party; it is one of Nigeria’s greatest cultural advantages. It brings money, connection, diaspora engagement, global attention, and a sense of national vibrancy that is hard to engineer through policy alone.

But culture cannot carry the economy if infrastructure collapses under its weight. Power cannot remain the weakest link in a season that showcases Nigeria at its brightest.

If Nigeria strengthens its power system, incrementally, seasonally, city by city, we unlock a multiplier effect that touches aviation, tourism, hospitality, events, retail, food, logistics, fashion, beauty, creative industries, and small businesses.

Detty December should stretch our imagination, not our infrastructure.

•Joy Dawaki is Commercial Development Associate at Elektron Energy, a company which works to close gaps in Nigeria’s electricity supply value chain.