COVID-19: More Nigerians, others will lack access to electricity, says IEA
The International Energy Agency said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic had reversed several years of declines in the number of people in sub-Saharan Africa without access to electricity.
The IEA, in its World Energy Outlook 2020, said around 580 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lacked access to electricity in 2019, three-quarters of the global total, adding that some of the impetus behind efforts to improve this situation had been lost.
It said, “Reversing several years of progress, our analysis shows that the number of people without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is set to rise in 2020.
“Governments are attending to the immediate public health and economic crisis, utilities and other entities that deliver access face serious financial strains, and borrowing costs have risen significantly in countries where the access deficit is high.”
The IEA estimates that a rise in poverty levels worldwide in 2020 may have made basic electricity services unaffordable for more than 100 million people who already had electricity connections, pushing these households back to relying on more polluting and inefficient sources of energy.
According to the report, the number of people without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa will rise to 592 million this year from 579 million in 2019.
Congo DRC has highest number of people lacking electricity (81.9 million), followed by Nigeria (80.1 million).
Ethiopia has 60.3 million; Tanzania, 36 million; Uganda, 32.6 million, and the rest of Africa, 300.8 million, according to the IEA.
The report said lower prices and downward revisions to demand, resulting from the pandemic, had cut around one-quarter off the value of future oil and gas production.
It said, “Many oil and gas producers, notably those in the Middle East and Africa such as Iraq and Nigeria, are facing acute fiscal pressures as a result of high reliance on hydrocarbon revenues.
“Now, more than ever, fundamental efforts to diversify and reform the economies of some major oil and gas exporters look unavoidable.”
The IEA noted that the COVID-19 crisis had caused more disruption than any other event in recent history, leaving scars that would last for years to come.
“But whether this upheaval ultimately helps or hinders efforts to accelerate clean energy transitions and reach international energy and climate goals will depend on how governments respond to today’s challenges,” it said.
