Determinants of Household Electricity Consumption in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Electricity is one of the major aspects of a household’s welfare. This study was conducted with the main aim of assessing the factors that influences the amount of household consumption of electricity in Bauchi state, Nigeria. About 750 households were selected using cluster area sampling out of which 539 responses were analyses. OLS regression model was estimated to examine the impact of the household’s socio-economic and demographic characteristics on their electricity use and consumption. The result indicates that level of education of the household head, living in the urban areas of Bauchi State, price of firewood and number of energy use devices at home, have positive significant impact on the household use of electricity. On the other hand, marital status was found to have a negative impact on the electricity expenditure, the households that are headed by a married person have less expenditure on electricity than otherwise. The study recommends policies that ensure increase in the level of education and turning some rural areas into urban areas will encourage adoption and use of electricity as a main source of household energy thereby reducing the rate of using traditional biomass energy