OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The World Bank has listed Nigeria among top 20 countries that lack access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking.
The bank disclosed this on Monday in a report, titled ‘Universal access to sustainable energy will remain elusive without addressing inequalities’.
Of the top 20 countries with greatest number of people lacking access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking, the apex Bank said 10 are located in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Ghana, Niger).
“Six are in Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia (China, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, Viet Nam, the Democratic Republic of Korea) and four are in Central Asia and Southern Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan),” it added.
According to the report, to ensure no one is left behind, the political commitment and financial incentives must be prioritised in all access-deficit countries to achieve the universal target of SDG 7.
It also listed Nigeria among the three countries with the largest electricity deficits in the world.
It said during the last decade, a greater share of the global population gained access to electricity than ever before, but the number of people without electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa increased.
“Significant progress has been made since 2010 on various aspects of the Sustainable Development Goal 7, but progress has been unequal across regions.
“While more than one billion people gained access to electricity globally over the last decade, COVID’s financial impact has made basic electricity services unaffordable for 30 million more people, the majority located in Africa.
“Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia had the biggest electricity access deficits, with Ethiopia replacing India in the top three,” it said.
