There has been some progress in increasing the number of Africans, especially people living in rural areas, who now have access to electricity. But it is slow going, while the overall population in most African countries keeps growing, this was creating new demand. It is obvious that the arrival of electricity is a game changer. It creates opportunities and capabilities for education, health care delivery, business, government services, and overall quality of life.
That said, the number of Africans with no service, about 600 million, is still staggering. And we should add to them millions who nominally have connections but receive only intermittent and poor quality service. Still, new investments have been made. At least some poor people, (and that includes most Africans), may receive subsidies for still expensive connections to the electric grid.
Here is how Quartz Africa described the situation in 2018:
“So our message isn’t one of discouragement. Instead, we’d propose that we use this update [about number of new grid connections] to look with fresh eyes at this staggering statistic; 600m people in Africa lack electricity. We must renew our appreciation for the scale of the challenge and the human consequences of failure.”
“Universal electrification is the seventh of the Sustainable Development Goals that the global community has committed to achieve by 2030. Even on very optimistic assumptions about the current connection trajectory, 240 million people in Africa will still lack electricity in 2030. To reach our goal, governments, donors and investors need to rally anew behind both government electrification efforts and private sector players in the utility, mini-grid and solar home system sectors”.
New, and more affordable, technologies, off grid solutions, subsidies and creative financing may help in all this. But the challenge remains enormous. Still, unless this electricity gap addressed and resolved, there is no way for African countries to engage in real economic development. It is that simple: No power, no modern economy.
–Quartz Africa, More people than ever now have electricity in Africa, but 600 million are still in the dark, by Lucy Shaw, Matt Tilleard and Gabriel Davies, April 30, 2018