Nigeria has accused European powers of scuttling its efforts to improve its electricity supply by blocking tapping its vast coal energy reserves, instead urging Africa’s biggest economy to instead focus on green energy such as wind and solar energy, which are much more expensive to harness.

The world’s economic powers which have called on Nigeria to adopt environment-friendly energy, such as the US, China, India, Russia, Japan account for about 77 percent of the global use of coal.

“We want to build a coal power plant because we are a country blessed with coal, yet we have power problem. However, we are being blocked from doing so because it is not green. This is not fair because they have an entire western industrialization that was built on coal-fired energy,” Premium Times quoted Kemi Adeosun, the country’s minister of Finance in Washington on Wednesday.

Nigeria has about 360 million metric tons of coal, which has the potential to cater for nearly 30 percent of the electricity needs in the nation, Daily Trust reported.

The West African country has no coal-fired power plants and produces negligible coal. The mineral is expected to generate about 1,000 Megawatts of energy in the next four years, according to data by Natural Gas News.

The country has endured power crisis in recent years. The national grid collapsed in March. Several have been shut down and generation fell. There are only 13 functioning power plants out of a total 24 stations.

Nigeria produced 5,074 MW in February, which was the highest generation capacity in the history of Africa’ biggest economy, The Guardian reported.

Chronic power outages caused by sabotage, gas shortage and vandalism of power infrastructure have hit the economy that entered into recession in August.

The rise in production costs by about 70 percent due to power outages. Companies have spent about $ 65.9 million (N20.8 billion) monthly on alternative power generation.

Leading companies like Coca Cola and Nigeria Flour Mills generate their own power due to the un-reliance on Nigeria power supply, The Sun reported.

There have also been job cuts, shut-down in operations and relocation by some companies to other countries across the continent.

Nigeria’s erratic power supply dismally compares to South Africa, the second biggest economy in Africa. Its peak generation of 5,074 MW in February is laughable compared to South Africa’s peak of 35, 819MW in the same period.

Africa’s biggest economy needs about 50,000 MW to adequately light up the nation and power its economy, according to analysts, Financial Nigeria reported.