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Rural electrification initiatives worldwide frequently encounter financial planning challenges due to a lack of reliable market insights. This research delves into the preferences and marginal willingness to pay (mWTP) for upfront electricity connections in rural and peri-urban areas of Nigeria. We investigate discrete choice experiment data gathered from 3,599 households and 1,122 Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) across three geopolitical zones of Nigeria, collected during the 2021 PeopleSuN project survey phase. Employing conditional logit modeling, we analyze this data to explore preferences and marginal willingness to pay for electricity connection. Our findings show that households prioritize nighttime electricity access, while SMEs place a higher value on daytime electricity. When comparing improvements in electricity capacity to medium or high-capacity, SMEs exhibit a sharp increase in willingness to pay for high-capacity, while households value the two options more evenly. Preferences for the electricity source vary among SMEs, but households display a reluctance towards diesel generators and a preference for the grid or solar solutions. Moreover, households with older heads express greater aversion to connection fees, and male-headed households show a stronger preference for nighttime electricity compared to their female-headed counterparts. The outcomes of this study yield pivotal insights to tailor electrification strategies for rural Nigeria, emphasizing the importance of considering the diverse preferences of households and SMEs., Comment: This paper is one the outputs of the PeopleSuN project for Nigeria. See here for more information on the project: https://reiner-lemoine-institut.de/en/peoplesun-optimizing-off-grid-electricity-supply-nigeria-2/

Fabrication of a highly sensitive non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for the detection of cholesterol is a challenging issue due to its low redox activity. In the present study, the electrochemical response of a novel combination of metal oxides has been explored. NiO/CuO nanocomposite was fabricated by electrospinning method and its morphology and structural characteristics were studied using scanning electron microscopy, EDX and X-ray diffraction techniques. Electrochemical studies revealed that the NiO/CuO/GC electrode poses a linear detection range between 0.8 to 6.5 mM, low detection limit of 5.9 microM and a sensitivity of 10.27 microA.mM-1 .cm-2 in the neutral buffer solution. The fabricated electrode has a response time of 3 seconds and a good ability to discriminate interfering species. Moreover, the nanocomposite electrode exhibited high stability as well as the other favorable factors, makes it an effective sensor for the detection of cholesterol. In addition, cyclic voltammetry experiments showed that the current response of NiO/GCE is approximately 30 % of the NiO/CuO/GCE response, suggesting that the nanocomposite has a greater electrocatalytic activity towards cholesterol oxidation than NiO nanofibers. NiO/GCE results showed the sensitivity of 2.5 microA.mM-1 .cm-2 , response time of 2 seconds and a limited stability over three-week time span., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures