The Acting Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Antonio Pedro, has claimed that despite a lack of research on the continent, renewable energy could add up to $1.9 billion to Africa’s economy by 2030.
He stated this on Sunday, February 26, during the ongoing African Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum in Niamey. According to him, renewable energy provides opportunities for Africa to increase its revenue base. He said:
- “One key opportunity for us lies in the renewable energy market. The value in this market in 2020 was estimated at $881.7 billion and is projected to reach $1,977.6 billion by 2030.”
Need for research and development: Given the positive projections for Africa’s renewable energy, Pedro stressed the need for Africa to invest in research and development to deliver sustainable industrialization and economic diversification.
He also emphasized the need for Africa to be at the forefront of a green transformation to accelerate growth, diversify economies and deliver on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063.
According to him, most African countries had less than 100 researchers per million inhabitants and 0.5% of GDP allocated to research and development. He argued that more needs to be done to strengthen an enabling environment through informed policies, increase investment in the research and development process, and harness the support of the private sector more effectively. He said:
- “To facilitate access to affordable and clean energy, SDG 7, SOLEKTRA International has installed 100,000 solar streetlamps and 1,200 solar microgrids in 15 various countries bringing electricity to many for the first time.
- “Various car-hailing services have cut down waiting time, enhanced transparency, and reduced the cost of travel across African cities.
- “Similarly in 2022, 11,200 bags of ground coffee were sold in a mere one second on the Alibaba E-Commerce platform, to name just a few examples. These are just some examples of real solutions that can accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.’’
What you should know: Nigeria’s renewable energy (RE) sector is growing exponentially, and this growth has been consolidated by government commitment to create enabling policies that have resulted in renewable energy technologies adoption across the country.
Partners like the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), and Sustainable Energy for All (SEForAll) have contributed to Nigeria’s RE sector growth. Nairametrics recently reported that SEForAll launched the Universal Energy Facility (UEF) in Nigeria, to fund 10 renewable energy companies to provide solar-based transformative projects in the country over the next 12 months.
- UNECA notes that Africa has a poorly developed innovation system, citing the fact that its research and development and manufacturing infrastructure remain weak, and its industrial base is too narrow.
- Similarly, most of the continent’s key infrastructure is designed, developed, run and maintained largely by non-African firms.
- New and emerging technologies promise to provide new sources of affordable and clean energy that will drive economic growth and democratize and decentralize energy production and supply with a minimal impact on the environment.
