Nigeria Tops Global List of People Without Electricity, With Over 86 Million Affected
Nigeria remains the country with the largest number of people without electricity access, with 86.8 million citizens living in energy poverty as of 2023, according to a new World Bank-backed report.
The figure, contained in the 2025 edition of ‘Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report’, marks the third consecutive year Nigeria has ranked lowest globally in electricity access, ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo (79.6 million) and Ethiopia (56.4 million).
“In 2023, the 20 countries with the largest electricity access deficits accounted for 76 percent of the global total… Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia topped the list, together accounting for roughly a third of the entire global access deficit,” the report stated.
Despite several reforms and funding efforts, only 61% of Nigeria’s population had access to electricity in 2023. Access to clean cooking energy is even lower at 26%, underscoring wider energy access challenges.
The report showed that 18 of the 20 worst-performing countries in electricity access are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The region added 35 million people to the grid in 2023, but with population growth of 30 million in the same period, the net gain was minimal — just 5 million.
“The region now accounts for 85 percent of the global population without electricity, up from 50 percent in 2010,” the World Bank noted.
In contrast, Central and Southern Asia have significantly narrowed their electricity gaps, cutting their deficit from 414 million in 2010 to 27 million in 2023.
Looking ahead, the World Bank projects 645 million people globally could still lack electricity by 2030, unless policy efforts are accelerated — with Nigeria likely remaining central to that challenge.
