Nigeria has overtaken the Democratic Republic of Congo with 25 percent of people without access to electricity, making it the country globally with the highest number of citizens that lack access to power.

World Bank Group Practice Manager, West and Central Africa Energy, Ashish Khanna, disclosed this in his presentation during a virtual engagement with power reporters in Abuja on Wednesday, April 21.

According to him, “Nigeria now has the largest number of unelectrified people globally and the trend is worsening; of the electrified, the supply is very unreliable with widespread blackouts.

Electrification, which was growing at 1.1% yearly since 2010, has not kept pace with the population growth of 3% yearly. This has increased the deficit by 3 million people to 85m which is 57% of the population. Nigeria now has 25% more unelectrified people than the 2nd most unelectrified country, Democratic Republic of Congo in absolute terms.

The power sector is operationally inefficient with unreliable supply exacerbated by high losses and lack of payment discipline. Businesses in Nigeria lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity while Nigerian utilities get paid for only a half of electricity they receive.”