Nigeria's household energy sector. Issues and supply/demand frontiers

This paper deals with the energy situation in the household sector of the Nigerian economy. A review of the pattern of energy consumption in 1989 elucidates several critical characteristics of the sector. The sector accounts for about 65% of total final energy consumption in the country in 1989 with fuelwood providing about 81%. Four cardinal issues to be addressed in the sector are highlighted. The paper also presents the result of a useful energy demand forecast for the sector over the period 1989-2014, which shows that useful energy requirements will grow rapidly as a result of both economic and population growth. This is then used in an approach of supply/demand balancing to establish supply frontiers for final energy carriers under three scenarios. Finally, the issues in the sector are examined against the background of the results of the analysis.