Putting an End to Nigeria’s Generator Crisis: The Path Forward
Nigeria’s economy depends heavily on small gasoline generators; their collective capacity is eight times more than Nigeria’s entire national grid. At its peak, the available capacity of Nigeria’s grid is ~5.4 GW, which is insufficient for current consumption needs.
Given poor grid access, 22M small gasoline generators are being used to power households and small businesses. Official statistics on the number of small gasoline generators in Nigeria are difficult to find. The ban on the bulk import of small generators, which came into effect in Nov 2015, means that the real number of generators is often under-reported. Dalberg's estimate reflects a bottom-up approach based on household-level surveys and covers the market for small gasoline generators. Other estimates of the number of small gasoline generators in Nigeria range from 17-60 million.