Electricity supply quality and use among rural and peri-urban households and small firms in Nigeria
An open survey of 3,599 households and 1,122 firms on Nigerian electricity supply quality
Read the published paper ↗doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02185-0
An open dataset on supply, not connections
According to the World Bank, Nigeria's electricity access rate stood at 55.4% in 2020, with a large gap between urban (83.9%) and rural (24.6%) areas. Connection statistics do not record the supply problem behind these figures. The average grid-connected household receives just 6.6 hours of supply on a typical day. Per capita consumption is just 144 kWh per year, against 351 kWh in Ghana and 4,198 kWh in South Africa.
Firms feel this directly. In the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, 27% of Nigerian firms named unreliable electricity supply as the main obstacle to their business. Firms reported 32.8 outages in a typical month on average, with an estimated 11% loss in sales value. Many Nigerians have turned to petrol and diesel generators, spending approximately 1.56 trillion Naira (3.76 billion USD at the 2021 average exchange rate) per year on fuel. We collected this dataset to help close the data gap on supply and use in grid-electrified communities outside the urban core.
A remotely sensed frame of 225 enumeration areas
We build the sampling frame from remotely sensed sources: WorldPop bottom-up population estimates, the Urban Rural Catchment Area (URCA) dataset describing travel time to the nearest agglomeration, and AtlasAI electrification estimates for 2020. We chose three geopolitical zones purposefully: North West, North Central and South South. The choice reflects their lower rates of urbanisation, and safety and associated logistical concerns elsewhere.
Within each zone we sample in two stages, each with probability proportional to size (larger units are more likely to be drawn). We first select half of the states, weighted by household counts, then select enumeration areas (the small survey areas used in a census). Sampling within selected states is stratified by rurality, using each zone's full distribution, to offset bias from pre-selecting states. Data collection by eHealth Africa began on 7 August 2021, using Kobo Collect computer-assisted personal interviews. In total, 60 enumerators and 12 state supervisors took part. Teams of two enumerators, mostly paired male and female, covered 16 households and 5 enterprises per enumeration area. Questionnaire modules draw on established energy surveys, most directly the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) for Measuring Energy Access.
What the instrument records
The final sample includes 3,599 households and 1,122 small and medium-sized enterprises from 225 enumeration areas across the three zones. The survey records the conditions of supply and use behind a connection, not only whether one exists. It covers demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, energy access and supply quality, appliance ownership and usage time, and cooking solutions. It also covers energy-related capabilities, supply preferences, trust in institutions, and several gender-disaggregated variables.
The data are released as .csv and .xlsx files with complete questionnaire codebooks. Weights for analysis across all three zones are provided. Sample locations in the published figures are jittered by up to 10 km. Technical validation during cleaning found that one enumeration area in North Central and six in North West were not grid-connected. These used electricity from other sources, such as diesel generators or solar devices. One area contains 15 rather than 16 households.
Modelling demand for communities not yet reached
This is a data descriptor, so it reports no analytical results of its own. Its value lies in the research the data supports, and we suggest three avenues.
First, modelling appliance ownership, electricity consumption and energy service needs in un-electrified regions. Surveyed appliance use in grid-connected communities can serve as a proxy for future demand among similar households not yet connected. Second, identifying supply-side and demand-side solutions to the high use of diesel generators. Third, exploring multi-dimensional energy access, access to decent living standards, and climate vulnerability. Here the data pair objective appliance ownership and use with subjective satisfaction with basic energy services, such as keeping oneself at a comfortable temperature. A common theme across all three is the importance of improving central grid supply quality and providing cost-competitive decentralised alternatives.
@article{pelz_electricity_2023,
title = {Electricity supply quality and use among rural and peri-urban households and small firms in {Nigeria}},
volume = {10},
copyright = {All rights reserved},
issn = {2052-4463},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02185-0},
doi = {10.1038/s41597-023-02185-0},
abstract = {We present a household and enterprise energy survey dataset collected within the framework of the PeopleSuN project in Nigeria in 2021. Across three Nigerian geopolitical zones, a total of 3,599 households and 1,122 small and medium-sized enterprises were surveyed. The sample is designed to be representative of rural and peri-urban grid-electrified regions of each zone. Our surveys collect data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, energy access and supply quality, electrical appliance ownership and usage time, cooking solutions, energy related capabilities, and supply preferences. We encourage academic use of the data presented and suggest three avenues of further research: (1) modelling appliance ownership likelihoods, electricity consumption levels and energy service needs in un-electrified regions; (2) identifying supply-side and demand-side solutions to address high usage of diesel generators; (3) exploring broader issues of multi-dimensional energy access, access to decent living standards and climate vulnerability.},
number = {1},
journal = {Scientific Data},
author = {Pelz, Setu and Chinichian, Narges and Neyrand, Clara and Blechinger, Philipp},
month = may,
year = {2023},
pages = {273},
}