This was made known by the World Bank Group Practice Manger, West and Central African Energy, Ashish Khanna, in a presentation during a virtual engagement with power reporters in Abuja on Wednesday, April 2.
According to Khanna, Nigeria now has the highest number of unelectrified people in the world as the trend is worsening.
He noted that Nigeria's supply rate of electricity 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 (DRC – 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," he added.
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