Structure and nature of alternative sources of electricity supply to households in Nigeria

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The study examined the nature and structure of alternative supply of electricity in Nigeria. It has been observed that all the efforts of the Nigerian government to improve electricity supply and promote access to electricity have been proving abortive and households at various levels are confronted with the challenge of searching for alternative supply of electricity. Also, state government and some private organizations are interested in solving this challenge, but they lack appropriate empirically grounded information on the choice of alternative source of electricity. The study, which is a pure exploratory one, used primary data through well-structured questionnaire from a sample of 4,758 households across 16 local governments in Ekiti State of Nigeria. Applying descriptive statistics, the strengths and weaknesses of various alternative sources of electricity supply among households were analyzed. The results indicate that rechargeable appliances, electricity generating set, inverter and solar/inverter are the four major types of alternative sources of electricity supply common among the households. It was also revealed that out of all the positive ratings such as regularity in supply, ease of maintenance and capacity, solar powered source of alternative electricity supply appears to be the best. The only rating that is unfavorable to the solar type of alternative sources of electricity supply is in the area of affordability. Government and interested private organizations should embark on establishment of solar powered stations for some communities or distribution of solar panels and inverters at subsidized rate to households to improve their socio-economic well-being.

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    • Figure 1. Households using ASES
    • Figure 2. Factors influencing the choice of ASES
    • Figure 3. Ratings on regularity
    • Figure 4. Ratings on maintenance
    • Figure 5. Ratings on capacity
    • Figure 6. Ratings on affordability
    • Table 1. Sample size
    • Table 2. Analysis of response rate by local government
    • Table 3. Gender distribution of households
    • Table 4. Age distribution of households
    • Table 5. Employment distributions of households
    • Table 6. Family size of households
    • Table 7. Education qualification distribution of households
    • Table 8. House ownership
    • Table 9. Proportion of households using ASES
    • Table 10. Ownership of rechargeable appliances
    • Table 11. Ownership of rechargeable lamps/torchlight
    • Table 12. Ownership of rechargeable radio/fan
    • Table 13. Ownership of electric generating set
    • Table 14. Distribution of types of electricity-generating set
    • Table 15. Ownership of battery/inverter
    • Table 16. Ownership of solar inverter
    • Table 17. Rate of usage of a selected ASES by household
    • Table 18. Factor affecting choice of ASES
    • Table 19. Common problems associated with ASES