By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Nigeria has been listed among the top 20 countries that lacked access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking.
The World Bank made this disclosure in a report tiltled ‘Universal access to sustainable energy will remain elusive without addressing inequalities’ on Monday.
It state, “Of the top 20 countries with greatest number of people lacking access to clean fuel and technologies for cooking, 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).”
The World Bank has also listed Nigeria among the three countries with the largest electricity deficits in the world.
It said, “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.”
According to the bank, unless efforts are scaled up significantly in countries with the largest deficits, the world would still fall short of ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030.