71% of households in Nigeria’s North East lack access to electricity

Nearly half (46%) of Nigerian households struggle with electricity access, with the Northern region facing the most significant challenges. The three Northern geopolitical zones have access rates below the national average, whereas South East Nigeria has the highest access, with only 25.4% of households lacking electricity.

Source:

Nigeria General Household Survey, National Bureau of Statistics.

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://intelpoint.co/insights/71-of-households-in-nigerias-north-east-lack-access-to-electricity/" title="71% of households in Nigeria’s North East lack access to electricity"><img src="https://intelpoint.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/electricity-152-674f576b71972.webp" style="width: 80%; height: auto; max-width:960px;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; margin: 0 auto; display: block;" alt="Chart: 71% of households in Nigeria’s North East lack access to electricity"/></a><br><span>Find more insights at <a href="https://intelpoint.co/insights?utm_source=Insight%20Embed&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=71%25+of+households+in+Nigeria%E2%80%99s+North+East+lack+access+to+electricity" target="_blank" style="color: #4f9acc; text-decoration: none;">Intelpoint</a>.</span></div>Copied to clipboard!

Period:

2023-2024

HTML code to embed chart

Want a bespoke report?

Reach out

Related Insights

Electricity generation in Africa: fossil still leads 2.5-to-1, but the gap is closing

Fossil fuels still generate 2.5x more electricity than non-fossil sources, though the gap has narrowed from a 2007 peak of 4.5x.
South Africa and Egypt together account for all of Africa's nuclear power and 59% of its non-hydro renewables.
Hydropower, the largest non-fossil source at 188.6 TWh, tells a different geographic story, with 91% generated outside South Africa and Egypt, mainly in Eastern, Middle, and Western Africa.
Gas still leads at 403.9 TWh, but its growth slowed to 0.8% in 2025 versus 11.9% growth for non-fossil sources.

Non-fossil generation overtook coal in 2023, and the gap has widened every year since

Non-fossil generation overtook coal in 2023, with the gap reaching 57.5 TWh in 2025.
Coal generation fell to 225.3 TWh, below its 262.6 TWh peak in 2007.
Hydropower dominates non-fossil generation, producing 188.6 TWh in 2025.
Fossil fuels still dominate, generating 703.2 TWh versus 282.8 TWh from non-fossil sources.

Egypt overtook South Africa's electricity generation in 2024 and extended its lead in 2025

Africa’s share of global electricity generation rose only from 2.6% in 1985 to 3.1% in 2025.
Africa’s electricity generation increased 283% over the past 40 years.
Egypt overtook South Africa as Africa’s largest electricity producer in 2024.
Egypt generated 242.4 TWh in 2025, up from 30.3 TWh in 1985.
South Africa generated 231.1 TWh in 2025, down from its 263.5 TWh peak in 2007.
Egypt and South Africa accounted for 24.5% of Africa’s electricity generation in 2025.

Nigeria retained Africa’s third-highest refinery throughput as output reached a record high in 2025

Nigeria recorded its highest refinery throughput since 1990 at 360,000 b/d.
Throughput increased by 50.6% from 239,000 b/d in 2024.
The 2025 level was more than 20 times the 17,600 b/d recorded in 2023.
Nigeria remained Africa’s third-highest, behind Algeria and Egypt.
Dangote’s contribution is not reported separately.

East African countries accounted for seven of the continent's 15 biggest electricity access gains in 23 years

Eswatini recorded Africa’s largest electricity access gain, rising by 66 percentage points from 2000 to 2023.
Kenya and Rwanda followed with gains of 61 pp and 58 pp, respectively.
East African countries accounted for 7 of Africa’s top 15 electricity access improvements.
Comoros, Ghana and Cape Verde reached very high access levels by 2023, at 90%, 90% and 99% respectively.
Nigeria’s electricity access improved by 18 percentage points, from 43% in 2000 to 61% in 2023.
Despite that improvement, Nigeria remained outside Africa’s top 15 gainers over the period.
Some countries were absent from the ranking because they had already reached high access levels by 2000.

Ibadan and Enugu DisCos together accounted for nearly two million unmetered customers

Nigeria still had about 5.25 million unmetered electricity customers across DisCos.
The 11 DisCos reported in Q4 2025 had 5.20 million unmetered customers.
Nigeria’s reported metering rate stood at 57.3% as of Q4 2025.
Ibadan and Enugu had the largest gaps, with nearly two million unmetered customers combined.
Ibadan alone had 1.18 million unmetered customers, the highest of any DisCo.
Ikeja and Eko had the strongest metering performance, both at about 86%.
At the 2025 pace of meter additions, closing the current gap could take close to seven years.