Nigeria’s energy crisis worst in Africa – W’Bank; Lagos breaking away from national grid

…90 million Nigerians not connected to grid

The World Bank says Nigeria has the largest energy deficit in Africa, with over 90 million Nigerians not connected to the national grid.

Senior energy specialist at the World Bank, Mr Arsh Sharma, stated this on Sunday at a conference tagged “Unlocking opportunities for clean and sustainable energy” during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Ehingbeti Summit in Lagos.

He said, “There is no other country other than Nigeria that is having that kind of energy crisis. Nigeria has over 90 million people without access to electricity. This is the largest energy deficit in the whole of Africa which is imperative for all of the development bank partners to come together to support the Nigerian government efforts both at the federal and state levels.”

He however said the World Bank had commenced a rural electrification project to improve access of electricity to rural dwellers in the country.

The project, he said, had provided over 100,000 jobs and impacted the lives of 4 million Nigerians, noting that, the initial target of the programme was to target 450,000 households, but stated that the scheme has surpassed the target in terms of impact.

“Our intention is to triple the ambition going forward. We started engaging with the Lagos State government and we did a viable analysis for distributed PV because there exist a much untapped potentials for the marketing of PV solar systems. We have been offering technical assistance to the state and we will support the State to implement the plans they have made up in the PV solar space,” he stated.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olalere Odusote, said, solar is the most vibrant sector in the country because of the large players existing in the solar industry, adding that the state had set a target of one Gigawatt of solar power by 2030 in Lagos.

He added that there must be a significant mobilisation of capital to achieve the feat.

He also said the state was partnering the Discos to set up light houses in specific areas the state to improve power supply in a cost effective basis.

The Lagos State Government, he said, was also planning to separate the state grid from the national grid such that whenever there is a grid collapse, Lagos would not be affected.

Managing Director, FCMB, Yemi Edun, said renewable energy has come to stay, pointing out the need for strong collaborations between the private and public sectors to drive renewable energy in the country.

She added that FCMB had identified key sector areas to achieve the rapid development of renewable energy in the country, noting that the Federal Government had no capacity to provide power supply to the 40 per cent of the population not on national grid.

She said the bank had so far provided loans of over $6 billion in four years to drive solar energy development in the country.