American musician Ray Charles wonders, What is a soul? It’s like electricity—we don’t understand it, yet it lights a room. Christopher Flavin, the former president of an independent research group focused on natural resource and environmental concerns, agrees and says electricity’s true promise is long-term economic development, not social comforts. Electricity boosts health, education, trade, and industry, improving people’s lives. .
In 2008, Nigerian homes and companies bought 6,000 MW of generating units to fulfill client demand. Nigeria’s electrical deficit has lasted years. Its electricity grid crashed twice in one week in 2022.
Almost 40% of Nigerian homes utilize generators for electricity. Due to National grid power shortages, affected families spend $14 billion on generator fuelling yearly.
According to the study “Nigeria’s condition of power: Electrifying the nation’s Economy,” these families’ high generator fuel costs hurt their spending and company growth. Hence, Nigeria’s power shortfall hinders economic progress. Big and small firms heavily rely on self-generated electricity, which limits their expansion.
Renewable energy sources are all around us and offer a way out of import dependency, allowing countries to diversify their economies and protect them from the unpredictable price swings of fossil fuels while driving inclusive economic growth. Cost-effective energy efficiency measures can stimulate macroeconomic activity and employment. Energy efficiency saves energy for transportation, lighting, heating, and cooling.
The Nigerian electricity generation industry faces infrastructure constraints across the entire value chain from fuel to power distribution, including set energy sources for electricity (80% thermal and 20% hydro), insufficient gas pipelines, obsolete generation plants and equipment, and inadequate and poorly maintained transmission and distribution networks. Vandalism exacerbated. Hence, we must evaluate how electricity generation will evolve. Wind and solar power are among the fastest-growing alternatives to provide greener, cleaner electricity.
Stern, D.I. et al. said in The Effect of Electricity on Economic Development: A Macroeconomic Perspective that energy infrastructure may boost economic growth in numerous ways. First, enterprises rely on power, which research shows has limited substitutability with other components of production and may limit productivity when absent. Second, the state provides health and education services using energy. Energy infrastructure relies on other infrastructure that supports economic growth.
Technology in economics is anything that makes production quicker, better, or cheaper. Technology probably conjures images of large equipment and rapid computers. Nonetheless, economists consider new methods when discussing technology. Technology drives economic growth in countries, regions, and cities. . US firms considerably boost China’s high-tech manufacturing (and exports). China generated 250 million computers, 25 million automobiles, and 1.5 billion cell phones in 2020, which explains their massive electrical generation.
Technological advances—the entire production system of knowledge, organisation, and techniques—are the second indication of economic progress. Technology can increase productivity with the same inputs. Technology may create jobs, boost GDP, create new services and sectors, alter the workforce, and innovate businesses. Additionally, boosting energy efficiency can cut individual utility costs, generate jobs, and help stabilise power pricing and volatility.
Technology transfer is a low-hanging fruit for Africa’s development and for Nigeria’s electrical problems. Universities, corporations, and governments may transfer talents, information, technology, manufacturing techniques, and more. This information sharing makes scientific and technical advances accessible to more people who can improve them. .
In conclusion, technology will revolutionise the world in the next 10 years, including machine vision, language processing, speech and gesture recognition, pattern recognition, real-time AI, Embedded AI or ML, etc. A increasing electrical supply, preferably from green sources for a cleaner society, is essential for technology mastery and economic progress.