Ghana has placed first in access to electricity rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, a latest report by the World Bank has stated.
The World Bank’s April 2023 Africa’s Pulse Report, which assessed the electricity access rate between 2015 and 2021, scored Ghana 81.2 per cent.
Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, and Nigeria followed the ranking order, scoring 77.0 per cent, 76.0 per cent, and 73.5 per cent respectively.
Nigeria, Rwanda, and The Gambia placed 5th, 6th, and 7th after scoring 69.1 per cent, 65.0 per cent, and 61.0 per cent respectively.
The Report also noted that Ghana, together with Rwanda, and Kenya were on track to achieving full energy access by 2030.
The World Bank said access to energy was one of the most profound development challenges Sub-Saharan Africa faced.
It stated that in 2022, 600 million people in Africa, representing 43 per cent of the continent, lacked access to electricity, out of which the vast majority of them—590 million or 98 per cent—were in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Report said although countries had made progress in closing energy access gaps, millions of people lacked modern energy services.
“Africa’s rapidly growing population has translated to energy demand increasingly, outstripping supply. At present, Africa has 18 per cent of the world’s population but less than six per cent of global energy consumption,” it said.
The World Bank said the COVID-19 pandemic had eroded gains made in the preceding five years—the number of people without access to electricity increased by four per cent in 2021, compared to 2019.
“In Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire, the numbers were stable or reduced. The pandemic had the largest effect on the installation of new stand-alone off-grid systems, as the majority of new connections since 2020 have been grid connections,” it said.
Source: GNA
