Let There Be Light! I hold this Truth to Be Self-Evident for Africa

More than anything else, Africa needs a  consistent power supply as a prerequisite for enticing foreign companies to establish operations in the continent.

A traveler to Lagos(Nigeria), the largest commercial city in West Africa, will definitely be delighted by the bustle and business at all sides of each street and  road, and by all the signs that Nigeria  is a nation on the move.  But as soon as the sun goes down at tropical speed, the whole scenery changed and all that will be visible from the bus would be  a few dim lights and large sounds from personal electric generators punctuating a heavy darkness – one of the identifying features of Lagos’ blackout.

For the 1.1 billion people who live in Africa, particularly those of them in the Sub-Saharan Africa, life as it is known in Western Europe, United States and other advanced countries, stops after dark. Except for South Africa, even some poor Asian countries like Vietnam and Philippines consumes as much power    as all of Sub-Saharan Africa.[i]  In African countries like Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon and Benin Republic (among many others), the lack of access to reliable electricity supply means that children cannot do homework at night, women give births by candlelight and kerosene lamps, foods spoils quickly, and cooking can only be done on basic stoves using dungs or firewood as fuel – fuels that normally  takes African mothers and children hours to collect from forests or fields and which can be a source of pollution that can kill millions of Africans when burnt indoors.[ii]

In a broader sense, in Africa,  it is not only at the household level that electricity matters. From an entirely practical standpoint, without reliable power, African businesses and economies cannot develop; factories operating within the continent cannot meet orders. In addition, vital connections to the already existing vast African markets cannot be maintained. This kind of scenario scares away foreign investors. It is thus not surprising that the level of foreign direct investment(FDI) in Africa is low when compared to that of the countries in Asia and in South America.[iii] In view of this,  many of Africa’s  most dynamic leaders(there’s only a few of them) say that electricity and power  are  more important than anything else when it comes to the continent’s development needs.

Hakuna Matata!

What is certain is that soon more African countries will have enhanced access to power and electricity. In 2014, tackling energy poverty in developing countries is  high on the international agenda. This is because 2014 is the year when the United Nations Organization’s (UNO)  “decades of sustainable energy for all” will kick off[iv] ; and when it does poor countries, especially the African countries, will be required to draw up plans  to provide their citizens with access to stable and reliable energy by 2030. In the United States, there’s a high possibility that the Obama administration will extend its trumpeted African development policy, namely, the Power Africa Initiative – a policy that he unveiled  in Tanzania in 2013, whose goal is to secure enough government and private investment to provide energy to at least 20 million households and businesses in Africa.[v] There is also a high chance that the U.S. Congress may pass an Electrify Africa Act of 2013 in 2014-2015,[vi] making them  to be even more ambitious and proactive with respect to boosting power supply in Africa. If the Act is passed, there is also a high possibility that between 2014-2014, investors from the European Union, North America and some rich nations in Asia(including China, Australia, Singapore and Japan), will seek opportunities to bring stable electric power to especially the poorest countries in Africa and a burst of technological wizardry will flood the continent’s vast market with smart gadgets and clever ways to generate as well as distribute electric power.

For a continent in desperate need for energy, all the above efforts and activities  will be required. Generally speaking, measuring the world’s unmet need for electricity and power supply can be a challenging task, given the different requirements  in urban and rural areas, as well as between households and businesses, in both the rich and the poor countries. The International Energy Agency(IEA)  estimates that to provide all those who lack power with enough for an electric light, a fan and a mobile phone charger, an additional investment of $600 billion would be needed by 2030.[vii] In comparison, the Obama administration’s Power  Africa Initiative pledges to spend $7 billion of public money to implement electricity and energy related projects in six selected countries in Africa – an initiative that can precipitate more $9 billion in private finance in the continent. Obviously, there is a long way to go when it comes to lighting up Africa.

In a practical sense, the task of providing  a stable and reliable electricity to Africa is enormous, but so also is the opportunity.  It is important to state here that if the rich world wants to assist in electrifying Africa, they should do it the right way, which will involve doing it in a cleaner way than the old industrial world managed.[viii]

The Clean Air Question

During the 1950s, pea-soup smog was a standard winter experience in any typical British city and the natural color of elegant classical-revival buildings in that country during that era is usually soot-black.  A  lot has, however, changed since then: Today, these buildings  glow in their original  delicate shades of pink, nearly 50 years after Britain passed its  clean-air legislation.

The fundamental lesson here is clear: With current technology, bringing stable power to those who do not have it, whether they are Africans or not, will inevitably raise the global carbon emissions a little bit – at the IEA’s basic level of access, about 0.7% more, which is equivalent to the amount being produced  by the five largest coal-fired power  plants in China.[ix] Nevertheless, technological innovations and policies  that encourage renewable power and natural gas, which were being promoted by the rich countries, can do wonders for Africa.  It should be observed here that Africa has barely  harnessed its renewables.  According to the available published evidence, as of 2013, only about 7% of Africa’s hydropower potential   and less than 0.7% of its wind potential  has been harnessed.[x] The continent’s solar power is still in its infancy. Meanwhile ,  in almost all the oil producing regions of the continent, gas is flared instead of powering  businesses and homes. Judged from a practical perspective, meeting the demand for equity in terms of providing Africans with the  basic services that those in the rich world expect without  exacerbating the risks associated with climate change is highly possible.

The above combination – powering Africa while having insignificant impact on climate change – would be an extraordinary feat. Eye glasses became widely available in Europe in the 18^th century and their use made the unimaginable possible by stretching out what people could do. In a similar vein, powering Africa will have significant transformative effect: It would bring in more foreign investments into the continents, create more jobs, reduce poverty and social unrests,  as well as bring hours of life after dark to millions of Africans who, at present, are denied it.

Notes.

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[i] Population Reference Bureau(2013): World Population Data Sheet 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2013/2013-world-population-data-sheet/data-sheet.aspx

[ii] Elliott M.(2013): Lighting Up Africa – How Electricity Will Transform the Continent. The Economist . Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://www.economist.com/news/21588905-how-electricity-will-transform-continent-lighting-up-africa

[iii] Dupasquier  C. & Osakwe, P. N. (2005):Foreign Direct Investment in Africa – Performance, Challenges and Responsibilities. African Trade Policy Center. Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/12601/bib.%2053710.pdf?sequence=1

[iv] UN General Assembly(2012): United Nations General Assembly Declares 2014-2024 Decade of Sustainable Energy for All. UN General Assembly Press Release.  Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/ga11333.doc.htm

[v] United States Agency for International Development(2014): About Power Africa. Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/about-power-africa

[vi] House Foreign Affairs Committee(2013): Electrify Africa Act of 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2014 from http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/sites/republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/files/Electrify%20Africa%20Act%20of%202013%20--%20Section-by-section.pdf

[vii] International Energy Agency(2013): World Energy Outlook – Energy Access Projections to 2030. Retrieved January 29, 2014 from http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/energyaccessprojectionsto2030/

[viii] Elliott M.(2013): Lighting Up Africa – How Electricity Will Transform the Continent. The Economist . Retrieved January 28, 2014 from http://www.economist.com/news/21588905-how-electricity-will-transform-continent-lighting-up-africa

[ix] Ibid

[x] Ibid