2023: Nigeria Tops Major Contributors To Africa’s 2GW Hydropower Growth, Says Report

Nigeria has emerged topmost contributor to Africa’s hydropower capacity growth in 2023 with 740MW out of a total 2GW achieved by the continent within the timeframe under review.

This is according to statistics by a yet to be released details of the World Hydropower Outlook, due to be released in full, 12 June 2024.

This comes amidst epileptic power supply in the country and yearning gaps in the continent in general as African energy leaders gather in Abuja this week to agree on routes to bridging the gaps.

Apart from Nigeria, other key contributors include Uganda (408.2MW), Democratic Republic of Congo (381.7MW) and Tanzania (261.7MW.

Further, the statistics showed that only 10% of the continent’s potential is being realised and this was attributed to access to finance and infrastructural inadequacies as inhibiting factors to progress across the continent.

Although the continent has 60% of installed hydropower capacity which is more than 20 years old, the continent still lacks access to clean, secure and affordable energy and water.

“Public-private partnerships are facilitating the financing and development of major projects. Simultaneously, regional cooperation initiatives are gaining momentum, offering promising avenues
for hydropower development. However, limited access to finance, volatility and governance issues inhibits further infrastructure development”, notes snippets from the report.