Data from the International Trade Centre (ITC) revealed that Nigeria spent $5.26bn in the last two years to supplement its electricity and electrical needs.
ITC stated that Nigeria expended the amount on electricity generating sets and other accessories which include electric transformers, vacuum cleaners, hair clippers, vacuum cleaners, rotary converters, microphones, monitors and projectors, ovens and portable electric lamps among others.
The amount spent to supplement electricity is not surprising given that a recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria gets 48.6 percent of its electricity needs from generators powered by petrol, diesel, and gas.
This shows that the country’s national grid only provided 51.2 percent of the nation’s power needs, leaving many citizens to depend on generators for electricity.
Investors King gathered that China, Hong Kong, India, Germany and United Kingdom are some of the top countries that supplied generators and other electric accessories to Nigeria.
According to a report by Stears Business, over 40 percent of households in Nigeria own and use generators and spend about $14bn annually to fuel them.
The report titled, “Nigeria’s State of Power: Electrifying the Nation’s Economy,” stated that “Nigerian households, on average, have electricity in their homes for 15 to 18 hours each day. Of that, 44 per cent (or 6.8 hours) is self-supplied by generators.
“And this differs by geography. In a state like Taraba, only 19 per cent of households report having electricity. Over 40 per cent of Nigerian households own generators and bear the associated costs. The African Development Bank (Afdb) estimated that Nigerians spend $14bn fuelling petrol- or diesel-powered generators”.
Similarly, in 2020, the World Bank reported that about 43 percent of Nigeria’s population (85 million people) lack access to the country’s electricity grid. Making Nigeria one of the largest energy access deficits in the world.
Spending $5.26 billion on power generating sets and other electric accessories has a lot of implications on Nigeria’s economy, especially on the country’s currency which has constantly been on a free fall against the Dollar.