About 625 million people in Africa have no access to modern energy services

It is currently estimated that about 625 million people in sub-Sahara Africa do not have access to modern energy services.

These people have no access to clean energy such as electricity and LPG, relying mostly on biomass, and according to the African Development Bank, (AfDB), using biomass for cooking, heating and lighting, is harmful to the environment.

The World Bank in 2011 said countries in sub-Sahara Africa spend an estimated $10.5 billion on kerosene and candles every year and described the two products as low-quality and fuel-based lighting.

The Bank said the expenditure is due to the fact that 70% of people living in Africa are not connected to a power grid.

“Seventy percent of Africans are not connected to a power grid… Because of this, sub-Saharan Africa spends an estimated $10.5 billion annually on low-quality, fuel-based lighting such as kerosene and candles,” it said.

To solve this problem, the World Bank in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation set up the Lighting Africa Programme.

The Lighting Africa programme supports the development and distribution of safe, clean, affordable off-grid lighting to Africans not yet connected to a grid, according to the Bank.

Mainly working with the private sector to provide clean, affordable, and quality lighting to people without access to electricity, the programme’s immediate target is to have 500,000 high-quality lanterns distributed by 2012, said the World Bank adding “Longer term, it aims to support businesses to reach 250 million people by 2030.”

A senior energy specialist at the World Bank’s Africa Energy unit, who is also the programme manager for Lighting Africa, Dana Rysankova, said each light-emitting diodes (LED) light will save some kerosene consumption as well as save money which they can use to “buy more lights or spend on other household necessities, creating a virtuous cycle of monetary savings and improved energy service.”

Meanwhile, the AfDB has announced that it will commit $1 billion annually to the energy sector in Africa. This was announced by the Bank’s President, Donald Kaberuka at an event promoting the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative during the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil June 21, 2012.

The SE4All initiative was launched by the United Nations Secretary General in September 2011 to achieve three main objectives by 2030.  The objectives were to ensure universal access to modern energy services, to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and to double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

Mr Kaberuka said “Promoting affordable and clean energy access is a critical development theme for Africa and thus the AfDB has been involved in the SE4All initiative since its launch.”

He said the Bank’s energy, environment and climate change department has set up a dedicated SE4All task force in March 2012.

According to him, access to reliable, affordable and clean energy is paramount for powering economic activity and growth.

“Energy access in Africa is still the lowest in the world, with at least 625 million people in sub-Saharan Africa without access to modern energy services.  Instead, they rely on biomass for cooking, heating and lighting, which is harmful to the environment,” he said.

At Rio+20, over 100 commitments have been made by countries, banks, and private companies to support the SE4All initiative.

Host country Brazil is reported to have committed a further $4.3 billion to achieve universal energy access at a national level by 2014.

In a related development, the Environment News Service (ENS) reports that businesses and investors have also committed more than $50 billion to achieve the three objectives of the SE4All initiative.

The World Bank Group has also pledged to double its energy portfolio to $16 billion a year by mobilizing private, donor and public contributions and adopting policies that expand energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Some other multilateral development banks also pledged to give over $175 billion of loans and grants for transport in developing countries over the next decade, the ENS has reported.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi & Ekow Quandzie