The African Development Bank (AfDB) has revealed that Africa only accounts for just 6% of global energy demand. The Bank also stated that Africans without access to electricity will increase by 30 million in 2020 due to COVID-19.
This information was disclosed by Mr Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy and Green Growth of AfDB at the second webinar series of the Africa Investment Roundtable (AIR) themed: “Sustainability En route COP26” in Lagos on Monday.
He revealed that due to Covid-19, Africans without access to electricity would increase by 30 million citing that Africans make up 72% of people globally without electricity.
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“Africa accounts for only six per cent of global energy demand, a little more than three per cent of electricity demand.
“This, I must observe is abject energy poverty, because out of 790 million people without access to electricity globally, 565 million (72 per cent) are in Africa.
“It has been projected that African without access to electricity will increase by 30 million in 2020 owing to COVID-19,” Kariuki said.
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He added that Africa has the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the world citing 85kw hours per annum.
“Also, 900 million people in Africa lack access to clean cooking which excludes them from economic and health benefits that come with access to clean cooking.
“We cannot be proud of this development, because lack to access to clean electricity constraints modern economic activities and hampers improvements in the quality of lives of Africans,” he said.
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What you should know
- According to EnerData, Nigerian electricity consumption per capita was 0.8 toe in 2019. Electricity consumption per capita is relatively low in comparison to neighbouring countries and reached 130 kWh/hab in 2019 as Total consumption has increased by 3.7%/year since 2016, reaching 168 Mtoe in 2019.
- The World Bank has approved $500 million to support Nigeria in improving electricity distribution in the country.
- “The operation will help improve the financial viability of the DISCOs and increase revenues for the whole Nigerian power sector, which is critical to save scarce fiscal resources and create jobs by increasing the productivity of private and public enterprises,” the World Bank said.
- The Minister of Power, Engineer Sale Mamman, disclosed in October 2020 that Nigeria’s installed grid power generation capacity has grown from 8,000mw to 13,000mw since 2015.
