Page 9 - GHES-3-1

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability

REVIEW ARTICLE
Impact of energy consumption on life

expectancy in lower-middle-income West
African countries

Benedict Ikemefuna Uzoechina * , James Okechukwu Ezekwike 1 ,
1
Geraldine Amaka Ekwoh 2 , Eze Anoke Eze 1 , Priscilla Chika Imoagwu 1 , and
John Ndubuisi Edeh 1

1 Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra
State, Nigeria
2 Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State,
Nigeria

Abstract
Academic editor: Life expectancy is a key determinant of a nation’s health and well-being. However,
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE
West African countries face several challenges in improving life expectancy,
*Corresponding author: such as inadequate healthcare infrastructure, corruption, poor sanitation, and
Benedict Ikemefuna Uzoechina
(ib.uzoechina@unizik.edu.ng) environmental quality due to environmental degradation. In addition, energy
accessibility is an important determinant of health outcomes and environmental
Citation: Uzoechina, B.I.,
Ezekwike, J.O., Ekwoh, G.A., quality. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 7, 12, 13, 14, and 15 are
Eze, E.A., Imoagwu, P.C., & directly linked with energy access; achieving these goals will lead to an improvement
Edeh, J.N. (2025). Impact of energy in energy access. Therefore, in this study, using data obtained from the World Bank
consumption on life expectancy in
lower-middle income West African and the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, we investigated the impact of
countries. Global Health Econ energy consumption and corruption on life expectancy in lower-middle-income
Sustain, 3(1):1-13. West African countries from 1990 to 2021. The results of the cross-sectional auto-
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3518 regressive distributed lag technique showed that renewable energy has a positive and
Received: April 28, 2024 significant impact on life expectancy in lower-middle-income West African countries
1st revised: June 10, 2024 in both the short and long run. However, non-renewable energy was found to have
a significant and negative impact on life expectancy in the long run and a negative
2nd revised: July 2, 2024 but non-significant impact in the short run. Corruption had a debilitating effect on
3rd revised: July 5, 2024 life expectancy in both the short and long run. We recommend that policymakers
4th revised: July 9, 2024 should make a conscious and deliberate push toward transitioning to renewable
energy through public–private partnerships to provide affordable and clean energy
Accepted: July 17, 2024 while tackling corruption.
Published online: October 3, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). Keywords: Life expectancy; Non-renewable energy; Healthcare; Renewable energy;
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Corruption
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Life expectancy is a key indicator of the overall health and well-being of a country.
Publishing remains neutral with West African countries face several challenges towards improving life expectancy,
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional such as inadequate healthcare infrastructure, poor environmental quality, poverty,
affiliations. and infrastructure deficiency. Dutta & Williamson (2019) found that limited access

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.3518