Nigeria’s electricity sector has continued underperforming resulting in the country lagging behind in the universal access to electricity when compared to Ghana, which has attained 88.54 per cent and still pushing to achieve 100 per cent by 2024.

Though far less in population with 34 million as against Nigeria’s over 200 million population, Ghana, Nigeria’s sister West African nation has been making a lot of conscious efforts through policy articulation and rapid implementation to continue growing its power sector for more investment and electricity access to the citizenry.

In his keynote presentation at the just-concluded Nigeria Energy Conference and Exhibition 2023 in Lagos, Minister of Energy, Ghana, Andrew Mercer, who presented the Ghana County Project Spotlight, said the country was on course to achieve universal access to electricity by the end of 2024

“The president of Ghana emphasised the aggressive target of the government to achieve universal access by the end of 2024 from the current rate of 88.54 per cent.

“This is consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) which is to ‘ensure access to affordable, reliable and modern energy for all by 2030’ including universal access to electricity and clean cooking, “Mercer stated.

Currently, according to him, the total installed energy capacity in Ghana is 5,454 megawatts (mw) whereas dependable capacity stands at 4,843mw, with peak demand reaching 3,561mw in May 2023.

Conversely, Nigeria has a total installed generation capacity of 13,000mw, with a meagre 3,500 to 4,500mw managed to be transmitted and distributed to Nigerian homes and businesses.