Energy sector in Nigeria - statistics & facts

Nigeria is the most populous country and the largest economy in Africa. With its fast-growing population, the demand for energy increases and is key to unlocking further economic development. In 2022, the electricity demand in Nigeria amounted to 32.1 terawatt hours. This followed an upward trend observed since 2020. Nevertheless, a large share of Nigerian citizens remains refrained from access to electricity. In 2020, just over 55 percent of Nigerians had access to electricity, leaving 45 percent of the inhabitants in the dark. Tackling those power grid issues while the population grows rapidly remains one of the challenges the Nigerian government faces to ensure economic development.

Gas is the most dominant energy source

Nigeria ranked among Africa's leading primary energy producers, only slightly behind Algeria and South Africa. According to the latest data, 5.15 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) were generated in Nigeria in 2021. Observing the electricity generation per capita, there was a declining trend from 2016 to 2021. Between 2010 and 2016, the number of kilowatt hours per capita increased to 170 from 155. By 2021, this decreased to 147-kilowatt hours per capita. This decline could be explained by the power generation challenges Nigeria is facing, which are, amongst others, transmission system constraints and power sector planning shortfalls. One of the solutions to face these challenges are renewable energy sources. However, gas remained the most dominant used source of electricity production in Nigeria. In 2021, approximately 23 terawatt hours of electricity production were generated from this fossil fuel, whereas 8 terawatt hours came from hydropower.

Increase in supply and consumption

With supply mainly coming from gas and hydropower, the number of gigawatt hours of electricity delivered increased slightly in 2021. This year, 35,654 gigawatt hours of electricity were supplied. Furthermore, the electricity supply followed an upward trend between 2016 and 2021, despite a slight decline in 2019. Most of the supply was consumed by the residential sector. In 2020, nearly 59,000 terajoules of electricity were consumed by households, whereas 27,304 terajoules were consumed by commercial and public services. With supplies increasing, consumption of electricity does inline rapidly as well. According to Statista’s estimates, by 2025, private households and industries will consume roughly 166 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Renewable energy share remains relatively low

Renewable energy not only contributes to decreasing the carbon footprint, but it might assist Nigeria in solving the power generation issues the country is facing in the future. In the last decade, the renewable energy capacity remained stable at around 2.15 gigawatts. Nevertheless, the renewable share within the total share of electricity capacity remained relatively low. In 2022, 16.4 percent of its electricity capacity was derived from renewable sources, whereas in 2011, this amounted to 23.3 percent. However, with developing off-grid opportunities (like solar), Nigeria might have an excellent market opportunity to save money for Nigerian homes and businesses and add their share to the usage of renewable energy.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Doris Dokua Sasu, Dec 21, 2023

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