Sylva: 62% of Nigerians lack access to electricity

Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, says 62 percent of Nigerians lack access to electricity, and 90 percent do not have access to “modern cooking fuels”.

Sylva said this on Wednesday while addressing delegates at the 2022 Nigerian oil and gas exhibition and conference in Abuja.

He, however, said Nigeria has a huge potential to become an industrialised nation, adding that the government was working to develop key infrastructure in the energy sector to make the country a gas-exporting nation.

“Studies have shown that Nigeria is an energy-poor country. About 62 percent of Nigerians lack access to electricity and 90 percent lack access to modern cooking fuels,” Sylva said.

“Our government is working on many initiatives to tackle these challenges, one of which is the gas-to-power initiative aimed at minimising gas flaring and harnessing our gas resources to electricity to meet Nigeria’s power demands.”

While the federal government is pushing for full implementation of the autogas initiative, the country is producing less than 5,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity for its teeming population owing to limitations from low gas supply to power plants.

For over 200 million people, 5,500MW electricity supply — out of over 13,000MW generation capacity — implies erratic power supply and lack of energy access in some parts of the country.

TheCable had reported on the constant calls for the development of regional mini-grids to help salvage the situation.

The minister assured Nigerians that “the federal government is providing a lot of enablers, which are needed to realise the full potential of the gas sector”.

“These include the development of critical infrastructures and systems such as the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) Gas Pipeline, Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipeline, and Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code,” he added.