Indicators of energy access in rural areas of Tanzania: an application of confirmatory factor analysis approach

Abstract

Energy access plays a crucial role in enhancing the social-economic development among the household members in any nation. Notwithstanding the role of energy access in improving the livelihood of people, the problem of energy access has revealed to be more serious in rural areas of Tanzania. The increased in problem of energy access in rural areas of the developing countries is due to the absence of a unified set of indicators for measuring the energy access to rural households from developing countries including Tanzania. This study therefore, aimed at determining the indicators of energy access in rural areas of Tanzania.The study employed Cross- sectional type of the research design to collect data from 384 heads of household from the rural areas of Njombe and Iringa regions in Tanzania. Moreover, the Quantitative Exploratory Factor Analysis using Principal Component analysis and varimax method was employed to determine the indicators of energy access. The identified indicators using exploratory Factor Analysis was further confirmed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The study findings revealed that, the indicators for measuring the provision of energy access to rural households in developing countries including Tanzania ranked based on its importance are: availability, affordability, durability, efficient, no production of smokes, easy to use and ability to keep cooking facilities clean.Based on these findings, the study concludes that, indicators of energy access are important in enhancing the social economic development and improvement of the livelihood of people in rural areas. In the light of this conclusion the study recommends to government energy experts and other practitioners of to use the identified indictors when measuring energy access to rural households in Tanzania in order to improve the livelihood and their standard of living.