Analysis of Household Energy Expenditure in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

Understanding household energy expenditure is important to encourage policies that support the provision of cleaner, efficient and cost effective sources of energy to households. This project analyzed household energy expenditure in Umuahia North Local Government Area (LGA) of Abia State, Nigeria. The available domestic energy commonly used by the households’ was kerosene, firewood, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), charcoal, and electricity. The most used domestic energy types was kerosene (1st), followed by Liquefied Petroleum Gas (2nd); then firewood (3rd) and charcoal (4th). Multiple regression result for the factors influencing household energy expenditure in the study area shows that five out of eight explanatory variables employed in the model significantly affected the respondent’s households’ energy expenditure. These variables were household size, sex, household income, education and frequency of cooking. Also, results from the ordered probit model shows that the significant variables influencing the choice of domestic energy expenditure was age and gender of the household head, their income level, educational level and occupation. Lack of financial resources, high cost of cleaner energy types and distance from the place of purchase significantly affected household energy expenditure in the study area. It is recommended that provision of cleaner, efficient and cost effective sources of energy be made available to households.