Nexus Between Energy Access and Child Education Outcomes in Rural North East Nigeria: Micro-Econometric Evidence

The relationship between household energy access and children's educational outcomes operates through multiple pathways including study lighting, school electrification, reduced time burdens for firewood collection, and access to educational media, yet rigorous micro-econometric evidence from conflict-affected rural areas of North East Nigeria documenting these linkages is limited. This study examines the nexus between household energy access and child education outcomes in rural communities of Borno and Adamawa States, North East Nigeria, applying instrumental variable regression to address the endogeneity of energy access. Data were drawn from a purpose-designed survey of 440 households with school-age children, collecting information on electricity source, daily hours of lighting, children's daily study hours, school attendance rates, recent examination performance, and household socioeconomic characteristics. Distance to the nearest grid infrastructure serves as an instrument for energy access. Results confirm a statistically significant positive effect of home electrification on children's daily study hours, with an estimated increase of 1.6 hours per day, and on school attendance rates, with a 9.2 percentage point increase. Effects are larger for girls and for children in households engaging in productive activities enabled by energy access. School-level analysis shows that solar-electrified schools exhibit 18 percent higher examination pass rates than non-electrified counterparts after controlling for school and community characteristics. Keywords: energy access, child education, North East Nigeria, instrumental variable, rural electrification.