NEW TELEGRAPH
Eighty six million Nigerians lack access to electricity, a joint report by a international organisations has said. The report stated that this had made Nigeria the country with the largest num- ber of people without electricity access globally. The report was compiled by the United Nations (UN), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The report examined the electricity access deficits in sub-Saharan Africa, where, it stated that half of the population still lacked access to electricity. “As of 2021, the 20 countries with the largest access deficits accounted for 75 per cent of the global population without access.
The countries with the largest number of people without access were Nigeria (86 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (76 million), and Ethiopia (55 million),” it said. According to the report, access to elec- tricity grew by an annual average of 0.7 percentage points between 2010 and 2021 and rose from 84 per cent of the world’s population to 91 per cent.
It stated that to bridge electricity ac- cess gaps, especially for people living in poor and remote regions, an annual rate of growth of one per cent point per year from 2021 onward almost twice the current pace is required.
It warned that if no additional efforts and measures are put in place, some 660 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, would still be unserved in 2030. According to the report, the sub-Saha- ran African region still has the largest electricity access deficits in the world. It added that about half of the regional population still lacked access in 2021. and that as a result, more than 80 per cent of the world’s unserved lived in sub-Saharan Africa in 2021.
It said: “Many developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, are hobbled by scarce financing, inadequate risk mitigation resources, financially nonviable utilities, low capacity in critical agencies, and the absence of local financial institutions with access-related expertise all of which compromise the bankability of electricity access projects.
“So, all countries need to establish con- ditions that support new and innovative ways to promote transparency, ensure ac- countability, and de-risk investments.” The joint report suggested regional co- operation as a solution to increasing elec- tricity access. “Because small national power sys- tems predominate in the region, region- al cooperation among national electric- ity companies and regional electricity markets is important to manage prices and ensure the security of electricity supply.”
“There is the need for attention to good regulatory and policy frameworks, that will encourage productive uses of electricity, which generate income and employment in local communities and thus help fight poverty. It is important to note that integrated access planning, with special attention to the expansion of mini-grid and off-grid systems, is the precondition for such frameworks.
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