Business
Nigeria has world’s largest electricity access deficit — World Bank report
Nigeria has retained its position as the country with the highest number of people without access to electricity, according to a new World Bank report released on Tuesday.
The report, “Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2025,” shows that as of 2023, an estimated 86.8 million Nigerians were without electricity — the largest electricity access gap globally. This marks the third consecutive year Nigeria has topped the list of countries with the worst electricity access.
The report, which assesses progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 — universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy — also reveals that only 61 percent of Nigerians had electricity access in 2023. Access to clean cooking energy was even lower, at just 26 percent.
“Once again, Nigeria (86.8 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (79.6 million), and Ethiopia (56.4 million) accounted for roughly one-third of the global electricity access deficit,” the World Bank said. “In total, the 20 countries with the largest deficits made up 76 percent of the global total, with 18 of them located in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Countries with the lowest electricity access rates include South Sudan (5 percent), Chad (12 percent), and Burundi (12 percent), with all three showing slow progress since 2010.
The report points to a slow pace of progress in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite some gains. In 2023, 35 million people in the region gained electricity access, but with the population increasing by 30 million during the same period, the net reduction in the electricity access deficit was only 5 million — from 570 million in 2022 to 565 million in 2023.
Sub-Saharan Africa now accounts for 85 percent of the world’s population without electricity, up significantly from 50 percent in 2010.
In contrast, regions like Central and Southern Asia have made substantial progress. These areas cut their electricity access gap from 414 million in 2010 to just 27 million in 2023, showing far more rapid advancement toward universal access.
On the global outlook, the report noted that since 2010, 665 million people have gained access to electricity, and 21 countries have achieved near-universal access. Still, challenges remain: the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that by 2030, around 645 million people will remain without electricity, with most concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
While some countries are on track to meet SDG7 targets by 2030 under existing policies, the World Bank stressed that progress must accelerate significantly — especially in Africa — if the goal of universal access is to be met.