The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says Nigeria loses more than N2 billion per year as a result of poor, inefficient and unpredictable electricity supply.

UNDP Resident Representative Elsie Attafuah made the disclosure on Monday at the “First National Legislative Conference and Expo on Renewable Energy,” which took place in Lagos.

The event was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Renewable Energy, alongside the UNDP, as part of its Parliamentary Development Program.

Attafuah lamented that poor electricity has significantly impacted Nigeria’s economy, particularly in the agricultural sector. “Agricultural produce such as yam, fruits, and vegetables are being wasted as a result of poor power supply,” she added.

She claims that the circumstances have also made the nation’s unemployment rate worse.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, who spoke at the conference, stated that Nigeria could no longer afford to delay its shift to renewable energy.

“This conference marks a crucial step for the House of Representatives to engage in the global response to a critical challenge. We recognise that Nigeria and the global community must embrace a transformative shift towards sustainable energy systems,” Abbas said.

Citing global trends, the speaker said renewable energy was now pivotal to development in any nation, with 2024 recording 585 gigawatts of additional capacity worldwide—92 per cent of new power generation. Abbas added that the huge financial investment in the sector was a pointer to this transition, with $1.7 trillion out of $2.8 trillion in global energy spending in 2023 dedicated to clean energy and related technologies.

“For Nigeria, a country that relies heavily on fossil fuel exports for its earnings, this transition presents both challenges and opportunities,” he said.