Nigeria’s economic growth faces a major obstacle as an estimated 88.1 million people remain without access to electricity, exposing the vulnerability of millions of small businesses that depend on reliable power to survive, expand and create jobs.
The figure, attributed to the World Bank’s Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) initiative for 2025, places Nigeria at the top of a list of 30 countries with the largest populations lacking electricity access.
The Democratic Republic of Congo follows with 80.4 million people, while Ethiopia ranks third with 55.9 million. Tanzania and Uganda have 35.1 million and 25 million people without electricity, respectively.
Nigeria’s position highlights the scale of the country’s electricity access challenge and raises questions about the capacity of its economy to support productive businesses when millions of households and enterprises lack dependable power.
For small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), electricity is not simply a household convenience. It is a critical input for production, service delivery, storage, communication and daily commercial activities.
From barbershops and tailoring workshops to welding businesses, cold rooms, food-processing outlets and small manufacturing firms, access to power can determine how long businesses operate, how much they produce and how much they charge customers.
Where public electricity supply is unreliable or unavailable, business owners often turn to petrol and diesel generators, solar installations and other alternatives to keep their operations running.
Although these alternatives can help businesses remain operational, they may require substantial upfront investment or recurring expenditure, placing additional pressure on already constrained profit margins.
For small businesses operating on limited capital, money spent on fuel, generator maintenance and alternative power systems is money that could otherwise go into expanding operations, employing workers, purchasing equipment or improving products.
The consequences extend beyond individual business owners. Higher operating costs can translate into increased prices for consumers, reduced production, shorter operating hours and fewer opportunities for employment.
Businesses that cannot afford alternative electricity sources may be forced to operate below capacity or shut down temporarily whenever power is unavailable. Those involved in refrigeration and perishable goods face additional risks when outages interrupt cooling systems.
The resulting pressure can weaken the competitiveness of Nigerian enterprises, particularly smaller firms that lack the financial resources to absorb rising energy costs as easily as larger companies.
Reliable electricity is also essential for businesses seeking to adopt digital payment systems, online sales, modern production equipment and other technologies that can improve productivity and widen access to markets.
Without dependable power, such investments become more expensive and difficult to sustain, potentially widening the gap between businesses with sufficient capital to secure alternative energy and those struggling to remain operational.
The national figures also place Nigeria’s electricity challenge in a wider African context. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique are among the other countries with large populations without electricity access.
However, Nigeria’s estimated 88.1 million people without electricity represent the largest absolute number in the ranking, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing Africa’s most populous country.
The figures measure the number of people without access to electricity, not the number experiencing daily power outages. They therefore do not capture the full experience of businesses and households that are connected to the grid but receive unreliable or inadequate supply.
This distinction is important because electricity access alone does not guarantee uninterrupted power, affordable tariffs or sufficient capacity for commercial and industrial activities.
Addressing the problem requires more than expanding connections. It also demands investment in generation, transmission and distribution, alongside measures to improve reliability, reduce technical and commercial losses and make electricity more affordable for productive enterprises.
Off-grid renewable energy, particularly solar power and battery storage, could provide additional options for businesses in areas where grid expansion or reliable supply remains difficult. However, the initial cost of equipment and financing remains a barrier for many small operators.
For policymakers, the economic implications go beyond the electricity sector. SMEs provide livelihoods, support local supply chains and contribute to economic activity across communities. When their operations are constrained by power shortages and high energy costs, the effects can spread through employment, household incomes, prices and local production.
Nigeria’s electricity access figures therefore point to a broader development challenge: an economy cannot fully unlock the productive capacity of its people when millions remain without a basic input required for modern commercial activity.
Until electricity becomes more accessible, reliable and affordable, many Nigerian businesses will continue to devote scarce resources to keeping the lights on rather than investing in growth.