By STELLAMARIS ASHINZE

The Nigerian Institute of Physics (NIP) says that only 13,112,134 Nigerians are registered to have access to electricity in Nigeria, out of its total estimated population of 230 million people.

The General Manager, Regulation and Compliance, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ali Bukar Ahmad, made this known on Thursday at the NIP webinar Series 2.0.

The webinar series had the title: “Policy, Regulatory and Technical Constraints in Achieving Energy Security in Nigeria: The Way Forward”.

Ahmad said that in the Energy Poverty Indices of Nigeria, the country had over 13 million registered customers, which represented a percentage of 5.7% of the total estimated 230 million population of the country.

He said that the percentage of metered customers of the over 13 million stood at 44.23%, adding that of the estimated 230 million total population of Nigeria, only 2.52 per cent were metered.

He noted that 60 per cent of the metered customers bypass the meter and contribute to the nation’s energy poverty.

Explaining the statistics further, he said that the nation was energy poor and deficient of energy security.

According to him, energy security is the uninterrupted availability of energy source at affordable price, while energy poverty is the lack of adequate qualitative and uninterrupted supply of energy or energy services and its products.

“For a country to be truly independent politically and economically in the 21^st century, is to have energy sovereignty and energy independence, and for the sovereignty and independence to be secured at all times and to be backed by the relevant geopolitics.

“In Nigeria, we have four types of energy poverty; the unserved, the underserved, the poor quality of supply and the served.

“Energy security in turn is the bedrock for the sustainable development and the attainment of it should leave no one, no citizen behind,” the general manager said.

Ahmad said that energy vulnerability in Nigeria included but was not limited to lack of diversity in energy sources – predominantly reliance on gas, shortfalls in production capacity, and unreliable and expensive gas supply.

He said that crumbling and inefficient infrastructure, lack of transparency and accountability in energy provision, vandalisation, and insufficient political and financial wherewithal to address the challenges, are also signs of energy vulnerability.

The expert added that transmission congestion, poor planning, technical and commercial losses, metering deficiencies and theft, inadequate policies, lack of policy implementation, regulatory interventions and more, were all signs of energy vulnerability.

He said the way forward to ensure energy security in the country was to overcome all policy, regulatory, technical shortcomings and bottlenecks.

Ahmad called for commencement of immediate utilisation of all energy sources in all parts of the country, and for more electricity exports and imports corridors in the country to be opened.

The TCN general manager urged that all tiers of government should be involved in electricity supply.

He also encouraged the NIP to invest in research and documentation to help address the challenges of energy security in Nigeria. (NAN)

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