Nigeria Tops as Africa’s Electricity Use Per Capita Remains Stagnant for 30 Years

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that while electricity use per capita in India and Southeast Asia is rapidly rising, it has been effectively stagnant in Africa for more than three decades. 

Per capita consumption in Africa in a new report titled: “Electricity 2024,” showed even declined in recent years as the population grew faster than electricity supply was made available.

“We only expect it to recover to its 2010-15 levels by the end of 2026 at the earliest, ”the report stated.

Thirty years ago, the IEA stated, a person in Africa consumed more electricity on average than someone living in India or Southeast Asia.

However, strong increases in electricity demand and supply in India and Southeast Asia in recent decades – which have gone hand in hand with a boom in economic development, the agency said, have transformed these regions at a spectacular pace.

“Meanwhile, Africa’s per capita electricity consumption in 2023 was half that of India and 70 per cent lower than in Southeast Asia. Our forecast for Africa for the 2024-26 period anticipates average annual growth in total electricity demand of 4 per cent, double the mean growth rate observed between 2017 and 2023.

“Two-thirds of this growth in demand is set to be met by expanding renewables, with the remainder covered mostly by natural gas,” the Fatih Birol-led organisation stated.

The report saw Nigeria ranking top among the countries with major power shortages last year, along with Pakistan and Kenya.

It stated that insufficient power capacity, fuel supply challenges, and grid-related technical issues continued to cause significant power shortages in many regions across the globe.