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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7, which dwells on access to affordable and sustainable energy provision for global citizens by the end of the UN programme, may suffer a miserable set back, as Nigeria leads in about 1.5bn Africans lacking access to electricity, says a report just released by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Nigeria has been declared to have the biggest electricity deficit in Africa, alongside Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
This is even as countries like Burundi, Malawi, Liberia, Central African Republic and South Sudan are said to have either stagnated or on the reverse concerning access to electricity.
Following this, ECA expressed grave concerns that with about N1.5 billion people in Africa lacking access to electricity and clean cooking fuel, possibility is not in sight for the continent meeting the SDG 7. ECA findings were unveiled in its study titled “Energy Prices in Africa: Transition Towards Clean Energy for Africa’s Industrialisation.”
The presentation made during a virtual ministerial meeting, indicates that 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity and 900 million have no access to clean cooking fuel, just as electricity access rates in 24 countries are below 50 per cent.
According to ECA Executive Secretary, Dr Vera Songwe: “There’s no way Africa can build forward better if we do not make adequate investments in energy and ensure affordable access for all,” urging countries to ensure cost reflective pricing in the energy sector./SHARE THIS