A joint report by report from the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the International Renewable Energy Agency, and the Sustainable Energy for All has revealed that Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania need about $2.5bn investment in accelerating electricity access in healthcare facilities.
According to the report titled, “Energizing Health: Accelerating Electricity Access in Health-Care Facilities,” at least 25,000 healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa had no electricity access, 68,350 healthcare facilities only had access to unreliable electricity while only half of the hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa had access to reliable electricity.
The report revealed that close to one billion people in low- and lower-middle-income countries were served by healthcare facilities with unreliable electricity supply or with no electricity access at all.
It added that approximately 15 per cent of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa had no access to electricity whatsoever.
From a World Bank needs analysis included in the report, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of healthcare facilities in low and middle-income countries required some form of urgent intervention.
For instance, either a new electricity connection or a backup power system and some $ 4.9bn are urgently needed to bring them to a minimal standard of electrification.
According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest investment requirement in accelerating electricity access in healthcare facilities, illustrating the high level of energy insecurity in healthcare facilities of the region.
It read in part, “Geographically, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest investment requirements (about $2.5bn), with countries including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania ranking high in terms of the total investment required.
