Niger [Electricity Systems in West Africa]

Niger is characterized by low final energy consumption (one of the lowest in the world). Only 0.140 toe per capita in 2010. The main reason for such a low consumption is the very low access to the modern energy services. The main energy form used in Niger is fuel wood that makes 80% of the total final consumption. The rest is dominated by oil products, electricity and negigible use of coal. The largest share in the final consumption is in households - 82.4%, while the rest goes to transportation (13.0%), industry (3.8%), agriculture and services. There is a large disparity in terms of availability of modern energy services between urban and rural areas. In urban areas, access to electricity services is close to 40%, but is negligible in rural areas resulting in an average national level of electricity access of less than 9%. The rural area, where 80% of total population is concentrated, has a marginal access of households to modern energy services, while 50% of urban households have access to these types of energies. After 2000 a new policy for development of the energy sector was adopted. This policy is focused on larger use of domestic resources and foreign investments in order to speed up the overall country development. The institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks were strenthened to improve investments into energy sector and increase access to energy services in urban and rural areas. This has brought some important public projects into the oil and electricity sub sectors, but there is still a long way to go to make the energy sector a driving force of the economy