The Nigerian government has commenced the development of minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) as part of measures to achieve the energy and emissions savings target reached in Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). It is expected that the implementation of MEPS will also help to facilitate the desired energy-efficient appliance market transformation. This research relied on data collected from the survey of 384 households in Enugu, Nigeria to study the energy and emissions savings impact of the current MEPS and identify the potential for its improvement. It investigates key challenges inhibiting end-users’ acceptance of energy-efficient technologies and examines strategic measures to enhance energy efficiency behavioral changes in consumers. Three different policy scenarios were conceptualized to model the policy impacts of current MEPS: a scenario assuming no MEPS or a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, a policy scenario (PS) that considers the current MEPS, and an aggressive policy scenario (APS) that assumes the scaling up of the current MEPS to more stringent levels. The policy analysis modeling system (PAMS) was adopted to study the impacts of MEPS considering a policy implementation period of 2019 through 2030. The findings from the study depict the role recommendations from friends, families, and neighbours can play in influencing end-users’ decision to purchase energy-efficient products and the need to design and implement financial mechanisms to support the attractiveness of efficient products. The national-level policy impacts show that the implementation of more stringent MEPS would contribute about 11.3% of the national emissions reduction target reached in Nigeria’s NDC compared to the 8.5% savings potential from current standards. The former represents the existing potential which if not utilized through the institutionalization of strategic policies will create efficiency gaps. To close this gap, the research recommends the need to implement more ambitious MEPS guided by appropriate market assessment.