One of the biggest complaints Nigerians have about
public service delivery is the irregular and inadequate
power supply in the country.
But if data by the World Bank is anything to go by,
there are a lot of Nigerians who are not even
connected to the power grid, let alone experience
irregular power supply.
Perhaps, the worry of this situation is the reason
behind the power ministry’s recent pronouncement
about rural electrification in the country.
During a meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Rural Electrification Agency last week, the junior
Minister for Power, Mr. Mohammed Wakil, stated that
there was a need to improve rural electrification in
the country.
According to him, this process would be driven by
renewable energy as a result of its sustainability.
The minister said, “Now that privatisation is
completed and we are addressing the teething
problems associated with past privatisation, the
administration is determined to focus on rural areas
where we have close to 70 percent of our people.
“Most of these areas are not connected to the
national grid, renewable energy provides an
alternative and this is what we have started doing.”
He said the new process would involve a mix of
wind, solar, biomass and hydro energy alongside the
conventional source of power, which is already in
use.
However, with an estimated 170 million people in
Nigeria, Power Talkback learnt that the problem of
access to electricity is worse than many people may
know.
According to a World Bank’s data on access to
electricity across countries of the world, only 48 per
cent of Nigerians had access to electricity between
2009 and 2013, ranking it among the lowest in the
world.
Other countries with lower percentage of population
with access are as follows:
Sudan – 29 per cent
Tanzania – 26.5 per cent
Uganda – 14.6 per cent
Zimbabwe – 37 per cent
Yemen – 39.9 per cent
Zambia – 22 per cent
However, few developing countries like Nigeria have
much more higher percentage of access to
electricity. Some of the countries are Philippines
(70.2 per cent) Pakistan (68.6 per cent) Panama
(88.2 per cent) Nicaragua (77.7 per cent) and Nepal
(76.3 per cent) among others.
Singapore has 100 per cent access to electricity. On
the way to achieving one hundred per cent access
are countries like Morocco (98.9 per cent) Mauritius
(99.4 per cent) Malaysia (99.5 per cent) and Libya
(99.8 per cent).
Perhaps, this is why Nigeria’s economy has been
dubbed ‘generator economy’ as a result of the fact
that most industrial activities in the country depend
mostly on the use of generators for power supply.
The World Bank states that over 1.4 billion people
worldwide have no access to electricity with
Nigeria’s 48 per cent representing about 81 million
out of that number.
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, also
admitted that much on Tuesday in Lagos, stating
that many people had erroneously believed that only
50 per cent of Nigeria’s population is not connected
to the national power grid and thus, live without
access to electricity.
“The question now is how to quickly reach these
communities, these homes, schools, hospitals,
markets and farms. There is no faster way than
through distributed power,” he said.
The ministry has not revealed how much the planned
rural electrification in the country would cost.
In the 2014 budget, about N8.2bn is allocated to the
National Rural Electrification Agency. Also, while
N461m is allocated for “Renewable energy for
electricity generation” in a breakdown of the budget,
N20.5bn is budgeted for the “construction and
provision of electricity.”
In spite of the amount budgeted for rural
electrification in the country, residents of many areas
spend huge amounts of money to electrify their
communities while many more still live in darkness.
Power Talkback learnt that most places affected by
this situation are mostly newly developed areas
where electrification projects have not been
extended to. In the face of delay by the government
to electrify these areas, residents are forced to pay
huge amounts of money to electricity distribution
companies to facilitate purchase of electrification
equipment and materials like transformers, poles and
cables.
For instance, residents of Mercyland, Ipakuro, a new
estate in Ogun State, had to jointly contribute money
to purchase electrification equipment to ensure that
they are also connected to the national power grid.
A resident of the community, Mr. Kayode Aboluade,
said each household contributed over N41,000 to
get a transformer and other necessary materials
needed for electrifying the estate in the absence of
government support.
He said, “There was no electricity in the area for a
long time until we residents decided to contribute to
ensure that we have power supply. We practically
did the electrification in the estate because we
bought everything ourselves. Government did not do
anything for us. Till now, residents that move into
the community have to pay into a common purse as
their contribution towards the electrification project.”
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