Nigeria, DR Congo, Ethiopia Named Top Three Countries With Electricity Deficits Globally

Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, has been listed among Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia as the countries with the largest electricity deficits in the world.

In a report titled: ‘Universal access to sustainable energy will remain elusive without addressing inequalities’, which was launched by the World Bank on Monday, it noted that “Significant progress has been made since 2010 on various aspects of the Sustainable Development Goal 7.”

The report, however, noted that progress has been unequal across regions.

“While more than one billion people gained access to electricity globally over the last decade, COVID’s financial impact has made basic electricity services unaffordable for 30 million more people, the majority located in Africa.”

According to the Bank, unless efforts are scaled up significantly in countries with the largest deficits, the world would still fall short of ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030.

Nigeria was also listed among the top 20 countries that lacked access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking.

“Of the top 20 countries with greatest number of people lacking access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking, 10 are located in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Ghana, Niger).

“Six are in Eastern Asia and South-Eastern Asia (China, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, Viet Nam, the Democratic Republic of Korea) and four are in Central Asia and Southern Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan).”

The World Bank said during the period of 2010 of 2019, the top five most populous low- and middle-income countries (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan) increased their combined access rate by two percent while progress in all other LMIC remained unchanged or stagnant over the same period.

According to the report, to ensure no one is left behind, the political commitment and financial incentives must be prioritised in all access-deficit countries to achieve the universal target of SDG 7.

Source:www.energynewsafrica.com