n CPEEL Monograph Series - Review of policy, legal and regulatory frameworks for rural energy/electricity access in Nigeria

Abstract

What have been the global responses to the recent end of the era of inexpensive energy in the last three decades? What have been the responses of income and energy poor developing countries, including Nigeria, where low electricity access have undermined their economic, social, and environmental sustainability because of the new global energy conditions? The latter question is the focus of the discussion in this section.

---

At the global level, developed and developing countries designed significant policy, legal, regulatory and institutional reforms in order to tackle their diverse energy challenges and provide access to efficient, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy services to support sustainable human development. The liberalization of their energy markets, albeit at different speed and content, was the central underpinning of the reforms which brought far reaching changes in the energy sector and the economy at large.

---

This global trend in energy sector reforms has also been domesticated in Nigeria with the government embarking on a variety of policy and institutional reforms and activities to ensure improvement in access to modern energy services. Among the notable policy, legal, regulatory and institutional reforms to tackle the crisis in the electricity industry are: The Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (2005), the establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Rural Electrification Agency and the Rural Electricity Fund, as well as the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). The subsequent discussion in this section will focus on providing an overview of the policy, legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks with particular focus on rural electricity access in Nigeria.