Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has a population of 206 million. As per business intelligence experts ABiQ, it is set to increase by 27.6 percent over the next 10 years and reach 263 million. This growth in population will need more infrastructure and resources.

The demand for power is going to increase as well and Nigeria will require an additional 5.6 Gigawatt of electricity capacity by 2030. This forecast ignores any power needs by industries or the current shortfalls in access to power and purely covers future population demand.

Investment required by Power Sector

The energy mix is diverse. Assuming a capital investment of $1.2 per watt, ABiQ predicts Nigeria will require an estimated $6.7 billion to provide 100% access to power for the additional population over the next 10 years. This includes 3.4 Gigawatt for the 88.6 million people currently without access to power and 2.2 Gigawatt for the 56.9 million people that will be added to the population over the next 10 years. This investment excludes the transmission and distribution costs required to reach the end-consumer.

West African access to power in 2018 (% of the population)

Source: ABiQ; World Bank (2018)

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