Home Electricity Electricity deficit: Nigeria ranked second worst in the world after India

Electricity deficit: Nigeria ranked second worst in the world after India

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The World Bank has ranked Nigeria as the second largest country in the world after India in terms of the number of people that are not connected to electricity.

The global bank added that the country was also the first in Sub-Saharan Africa with more of her population without electricity.

According to the report, this is as a result of Nigeria’s inability to provide electricity to about 80 million of its people.

The World Bank further disclosed that the country had to initiate viable strategies that would connect between 500,000 to 800,000 new households to electricity sources every year between now and 2030 to be able to achieve her targets of universal access to electricity for its citizens to solve the challenge of electricity deficit.

The report says: “With about 80 million people lacking access to grid electricity, Nigeria has the largest access deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second largest in the world, after India.

“Up to 83.6 percent of the urban population had access while only 39.1 percent of the rural population did. Similarly, the connection rate ranges from 26.7 percent in the northeast to 82.4 percent in the south-south zone.

“Levels of access to electricity also vary between the states, from close to universal access in Lagos to about 11 percent in Taraba. Thirteen states have levels of access below 40 percent. This can be compared with the incidence of absolute poverty in each state,” said the report.

It further explained: “The government’s target is to achieve 75 percent electrification by 2025, which would require doubling the number of households with connections by that date. To achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, Nigeria would need to connect between 500,000 to 800,000 households per year.

“Both grid extension and off-grid solutions will be needed to provide quality services to the unserved and underserved households and businesses in a timely manner,” the bank added.

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