Nigeria has overtaken Democratic Republic of Congo as the country with the largest number of citizens without access to electricity globally.
The new development was revealed by World Bank Group officials during a virtual engagement with power reporters in Abuja on Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) on Thursday, Nigeria has 25 percent of people without access to electricity.
The international financial agency’s officials revealed that while electrification in the country has been growing at 1.1% yearly since 2010, it has not kept pace with the population growth of 3% yearly. This has increased the deficit by 3 million people to 85m which is 57% of the population.
The group said;
Nigeria now has the largest number of unelectrified people globally and the trend is worsening; of the electrified, the supply is very unreliable with widespread blackouts.
Nigeria now has 25% more unelectrified people than the 2nd most unelectrified country (DRC – in absolute terms).
Commenting, WBG Practice Manager, West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khanna, who presented the document, said;
The power sector is operationally inefficient with unreliable supply exacerbated by high losses and lack of payment discipline. Businesses in Nigeria lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity while Nigerian utilities get paid for only a half of electricity they receive.
The bank also revealed that 80% of grid connected households have six or fewer hours of electricity per day while 40% of those who have access to power rely on offgrid means like generators and solar power plants.
However, the bank expressed that PSRP intervention is helping to change the narrative. It approved $1.25bn between June 2020 and February 2021 to reset the power sector.
World Bank also said to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, Nigeria would need to connect over 1 million households yearly while devising means to ensure consumers pay for the electricity consumed.
