Energy Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence for Nigeria

Energy poverty is the common problem for every country in sub-Saharan Africa and is mostly driven by the lack of electricity. In Nigeria, the failure of the government to fix power outage has been connected to Nigeria’s slow economic growth by affecting human social capital. This research would examine the residential, educational and environmental implication of the lack of power in Nigeria, to determine the relationship between electricity consumption, school enrolment, and energy poverty measurement in Nigeria. Also, to investigate the causes of non-reliable power systems. The study used time series annually from 1990 to 2020. The study shows that energy poverty is very much present in Nigeria and is shaped by the lack of electricity which has damaging effects on Nigeria’s residential, educational and manufacturing sectors through electricity consumption. The study used unit root test (ADF and PP), lag length criteria, ARDL model and bounds test, ECM (error correction model). Findings showed that at difference, all the variables are significant and so stationary, and PP test is also used to support it. Following lag length criteria, lag 2 was the best option. Fstatistic is greater than I (0) and I (1), T-Statistic is too. ECM showed that the correction of the previous error will be done at a speed of 104%. Therefore, to solve the problem, TCN can update and expand transformers capacity and the new voted law that would empower state governments to generate and transfer electricity on their own should be implemented. The fact that the access to clean cooking should be increased is a gender problem as well and can save many lives. The grid needs to be renovated.