Theoretical Reconceptualisation of Energy Access Beyond Electrification: A Capability Approach Applied to North Central Nigeria

Dominant frameworks for measuring and targeting energy access in Nigeria conflate electrification with energy access and focus narrowly on electricity service attributes while neglecting the broader substantive freedoms and capabilities that energy services enable or constrain, pointing to the need for a theoretically reconceptualised and empirically grounded alternative framework. This study reconceptualises energy access beyond electrification by developing and applying an original Capability Approach to Energy Access framework, drawing on Amartya Sen's capability theory and Martha Nussbaum's central human capabilities to specify the substantive freedoms that adequate energy services must enable. The framework is applied empirically through qualitative and quantitative fieldwork in 20 communities across Benue, Niger, and Nasarawa States in North Central Nigeria, involving 55 focus group discussions, 380 household survey interviews, and 30 key informant interviews with energy programme staff, healthcare workers, teachers, and entrepreneurs. Q-methodology and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis are applied to identify capability dimensions most frequently constrained by energy poverty and the configurations of energy service characteristics associated with capability realisation. The study's original theoretical contribution is a Minimum Energy Capability Threshold specification identifying the energy service attributes, including supply reliability, safety, sufficiency, affordability, and productive use enablement, required for basic human capability realisation in the Nigerian rural context. The framework challenges the International Energy Agency's Multi-Tier Framework as insufficient for capturing energy justice dimensions and proposes a capability-augmented measurement standard. Keywords: capability approach, energy access, energy justice, North Central Nigeria, reconceptualisation.