To power healthcare institutions, Nigeria, others require $2.5bn – WHO

By Yemi Olakitan

The World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the International Renewable Energy Agency, and Sustainable Energy for All, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania need to invest roughly $2.5 billion to speed up the access to electricity in healthcare facilities.

In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 25,000 healthcare facilities lack access to electricity, 68,350 only had unreliable electricity, and only half of the hospitals had access to reliable electricity, according to the report “Energizing Health: Accelerating Electricity Access in Health-Care Facilities.”
According to the study, healthcare facilities in low- and lower-middle-income nations provide care to nearly a billion people while having intermittent or no access to electricity.

It was also mentioned that 15% of healthcare institutions in sub-Saharan Africa had no electricity at all.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries needed some sort of urgent intervention, according to a World Bank needs analysis that was included in the study.

To get them to a basic level of electrification, for instance, either a new energy connection or a backup power system and about $ 4.9 billion are urgently required.

The paper claims that sub-Saharan Africa has the biggest investment needed to speed up access to power in healthcare institutions, highlighting the region’s severe energy insecurity.

According to geography, sub-Saharan Africa has the largest investment requirements (approximately $2.5 billion), with nations like Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania ranking highly in terms of the total amount of investment needed.