Energy Access and Poverty in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Investigation

Determining the effect of energy access on poverty in Nigeria between 1990 and 2023 is very crucial given Nigeria’s growing energy demands and rising rates of poverty. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, data on energy access proxies such as volume of electricity generated, electricity consumed, access to electricity as well as on poverty rate were obtained from International Energy Agency and the World Bank. These data were analysed applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach after carrying out descriptive statistics and unit root test. The result of the analysis revealed that volume of electricity generated, electricity consumed and access to electricity have negative but significant effect on poverty level in Nigeria while carbon emission has a positive and non-significant effect on poverty index in Nigeria. Based on the findings, it can therefore be inferred that energy access could lead to significant reduction in poverty level in Nigeria. The study recommended among other things that government should promote investment and efficiency in the power sector in order to reverse the rising trend in poverty in Nigeria. This could be achieved by increasing power generation, mass metering of electricity consumption and investing more in renewable energy in order to increase supply, improve access and reduce cost of electricity in Nigeria. This will improve supply and access to electricity thereby making electricity affordable and reduce poverty in the country.