•AfDB report that 57% of people in West Africa don’t have access to electricity is depressing
The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) revelation regarding the percentage of people living without access to electricity in West Africa is startling. The bank, in its “West Africa Monitor Quarterly” for the second quarter of 2014 report says that more than 57 per cent of the people living in the sub-region live in darkness. The percentage reportedly approximated the average for sub-Saharan Africa in a global community where the minimum power denial percentage is 18 per cent.
In a world where there is hardly any economic activity that can be done without power, it is shameful that a large percentage of people in the sub-region don’t have access to electricity.
The breakdown of population with access to power in some countries of the sub-region, according to the report includes: Niger – eight percent; Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau have 15 percent each. Ghana has 70 per cent of her people having access to power while Cape Verde has the highest percentage of 87.
As usual, Nigeria is found wanting in the report even though Professor Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power, reportedly revealed sometime ago at the 15th Herbert Macaulay Lecture organised by the Engineering Faculty of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, that less than 50 per cent of Nigerians currently have access to electricity. Shamefully, this is reportedly seven per cent lower than the West African average reported by AfDB.
Surprisingly, the countries in the sub-region have diverse endowments through which they can source for stable power but have either failed to take advantage of them or are underutilising the natural blessings. For instance, hydro power with all the waterways across the sub-region has an estimated potential of 25,000 megawatts; yet only 16 per cent has reportedly been exploited. Also, several in-country lakes and dams hold promise for renewable energy development. The sub-region is blessed with good weather that could help tremendously in renewable energy sources good for generating wind and solar power.
The governments of countries in the sub-region definitely know the importance of power and yet could not muster the required political will to make it accessible to the greatest number of their people whether in the rural or urban areas. For instance, the Nigerian government, despite its huge expenditure in the power sector, is still contending with inadequate generation capacity and unreliable/expensive service and irregular power supply, amongst others.
Because of low electrification and poor rural infrastructure generally, there have been astronomical wide disparities in access to electricity between rural areas and urban centres in the sub-region. The report says that in Ghana, for example, 87 per cent of urban dwellers have access to electricity, compared with the five per cent in rural areas. The situation in Nigeria might be worse.
The AfDB report connotes serious backwardness for the economic and technological drive of Nigeria and other countries in the sub-region. Nigeria in particular has a lot to do in view of her status in the continent. Electricity was not epileptic at a point in the country’s history. Apparently, corruption has eaten deep into the entire system because this is the only thing that can explain the huge gap between the funds committed into the power sector, especially in the last decade, and the output from the sector. It is curious that all we can celebrate today is less than 5,000 megawatts in spite of the investments in the sector..
If this sad trend continues, it is doubtful whether Nigeria will ever attain the universal energy access target of 2030. But one thing is certain, if Nigeria gets it right, it will rub off on other West African countries.
