Africa Must Generate Power With Demand In Mind

Africa is a continent that is home to almost a fifth of the world’s population, but accounts for less than 4% of global electricity use. Of the 570 million people in the world who have no access to electricity, 380 million are in Africa.

The irony is that this ‘Dark Continent’ with inadequate electricity, produces quite a large amount of energy, but without a clear outlet focused on sustaining the produced energy through economic activity, the energy will never be harnessed exhaustively, resulting in high electricity costs and excessive wastage.

In short, when it comes to the question of addressing Power Poverty in Africa, we have been looking at the wrong solution. We have been focusing on creating supply, instead of generating demand.

First, we must realize what driving demand means. Demand is about economic activity. Unfortunately, demand is currently driven by small-scale consumption. In many communities, the uptake and willingness to pay for electricity
is often low, primarily because the usage levels of those who are connected are limited. You will find for instance that in many rural settings, and in urban settlements, the average domestic use of electricity is to light up a single room, a socket or two, an iron box or a radio in some cases.

We need to urgently move away from this reality, because we must shift our thinking from consumption to production. Consumption should not be for its own sake, but a by-product of a bigger end. So how do we attain
this?

The answer is this: we must work to produce energy with an economic end in mind. To generate income, create jobs, and alleviate poverty in Africa, electricity has to be part of a package. On its own, it may not
be enough to make a difference. Energy is an enabler. It cannot be the centerpiece.

Energy generation makes sense only when we peg it to an economic activity that will generate revenue to sustain it. In other words, the best projects have multiple positive outcomes for minimal cash input.

Lets take an example of a private or public solar powered farming project. The project will achieve economic objectives from production of crops, climate change objectives from use of clean energy, and social impact objectives by creating jobs, including micro enterprises. Another by-product of this venture is that the excess energy that is generated can be distributed to the communities around the project. The same applies to on-grid electricity. Large energy driven operations reduce the cost of energy on aggregate, thereby trickling down the cost reduction to consumers, including MSMEs who would otherwise not start up, or find energy too expensive to keep their doors open.

In short, if we solve the demand question through generating economic demand such as manufacturing, energy consumption will be a natural, affordable by-product.

Jane Mwangi, AJW Africa CEO in The Standard 22 Aug 2021