During the virtual Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) held yesterday at Abuja, World Bank Group officials declared that Nigeria has overtaken the Democratic Republic of Congo with 25 percent of people without access to electricity, making it the country with the highest number of citizens that lack access to power globally.
In February this year, the World Bank approved $500 million to support the Nigerian government in line with its goal of achieving universal access to electricity by 2030. This financial support was provided for Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) to improve electricity access through a large-scale metering program for the over 85 million Nigerians who do not have access to grid electricity. By the 2020 Doing Business report, Nigeria ranked 171 out of 190 countries in getting electricity. This meant Nigerian businesses lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity.
World Bank Group Practice Manager, West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khanna, who had presented the document, said, “Nigeria would need to connect over 1 million households yearly while devising means to ensure consumers pay for the electricity consumed.”
