Analysis of Green and Non-green Energy Poverty among Rural and Urban Households in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

In rural and urban areas of Nigeria where alternative fuels were available, shift away from domestic wood fuel use were not taking place on a very large scale. The urban dwellers that normally use kerosene and gas were now systematically shifting to using charcoals. If energy situation should continue this way, economic growth and human development will be hampered in Oyo State. This study therefore, analysed the green and non-green energy poverty among rural and urban households in Oyo State of Nigeria. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select samples of two hundred and forty (240) respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire. The result showed that the mean age of all the respondents was 49.3 years while 66% of them were women. The average household size was 5 and 39% of the respondents attended tertiary institutions. Their primary occupation was farming (57%). The major energy sources available to the respondents were kerosene and charcoal (54%). The energy expenditure approach result showed that, 55% of the rural respondents were energy non-poor, 58% of the respondents in the urban areas were energy poor. The relative measure of energy poverty result revealed that 70.8% of all the respondents were energy poor. The logistic regression results showed that household size (p≤0.01), education (p≤0.01), expenditure on food (p≤0.01) were variables which positively determined energy poverty of the rural households; age (p≤0.01), household size (p≤0.01), education (p≤0.01) and expenditure on food (p≤0.01) were positive significant variables which determined energy poverty of the urban households and household size (p≤0.01), expenditure on food (p≤0.01) were positive significant variables that determined energy poverty of the pooled data. In conclusion, there should be an awareness, affordable prices of various energy types, advancement in technology, maintenance practices and revitalization of energy projects in the study area.