When you fly over Africa you realise how dark the continent is, and this is not because of her people, its simply because Africa is not powered. Humanity has never before had such resources, knowledge, and technology at its disposal yet it is a long way from translating those advances into decent lives for all the world’s people.
I believe that innovation by businesses large and small can play a central role in closing that gap and solving the world’s challenges. Africa’s shortage of electric power is one of the greatest such challenges, and the push to electrify the continent provides inspiring examples of entrepreneurial solutions.
A few numbers show just how far Africa has to go in power generation. Electricity consumption per person in large African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria is less than one-tenth that of Brazil or China. In poorer countries such as Mali, a typical household uses less electricity in a year than a Londoner uses to boil a kettle each day. And nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity altogether with the result that whole communities literally live half their lives in the dark.
The power gap imposes high economic costs, electricity is the life-blood of any economy, it is the key to getting businesses to work, whether you’re in the agricultural sector, or mining sector. When we talk of foreign capital investment, one of the most deterring factors for foreign to invest in Africa is the energy crises it faces.
While I understand why investors might see energy in Africa as reason to avoid Africa, I do strongly believe that the lack of energy in Africa is an opportunity rather than a threat that which bold innovative investors can use to help close the power gap.
Expanding Africa’s power grid is very important, it’s not the only part of the solution. A new breed of African innovators is harnessing the advances in solar power and battery storage, to leapfrog the continent’s gaps in electric power generation. One example is Kenya-based M-Kopa, which provides solar-powered electricity generation and storage solutions to households that lack access to the grid
The time to expand the use digital technologies in Africa has come. The time to decarbonized, decentralized energy in Africa has come, fortunately this cannot be done by governments neither should it. It is the only the muscle of businesses that can switch on the plug for Africa.
