ADDIS ABABA- Africa needs to increase its levels of ambition and strengthen its policies if it is to close its energy gap, increase competitiveness and power its inclusive and sustainable development, says Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
In her speech on Wednesday to RES4Africa Foundation’s 7th annual conference on the theme Overcoming Africa’s Energy Access Gap, Ms. Songwe said, “We need to tackle Africa’s energy challenge with urgent, bold and ambitious agenda.”
“Current policies and levels of ambition on the continent are not enough. It is estimated that at this rate we will still end up with about the same number of people without access to electricity today and even more people without access to clean cooking solutions by 2030.”
The ECA Chief said megatrends on the continent, including growing population, increasing middle class, industrialization, climate change, rapid urbanization and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) will lead to a significant increase in the demand for energy.
“We need plenty of electricity and heat to produce the goods that we need to trade within the AfCFTA and also to power the services needed,” said Ms. Songwe.
“We cannot talk of a prosperous Africa without energy at the heart of it. We need energy for the AfCFTA, education, health and jobs for our growing youthful population and enhanced opportunities for women. We just cannot have a successful AfCFTA without sufficient and reliable energy.”
Ms. Songwe said Africa needs to invest in building credible institutions and human and institutional capacity for energy investment planning. The ECA’s Institute for Economic Planning and Development (IDEP) is supporting member States in this effort.
“We can deliver the energization of Africa’s development with greater ambition if we build strong partnerships for action to ensure the right win-win models of public private partnerships to finance the green energy transformation for the Africa we want by 2063,” she said.
This way we can accelerate efforts to bring online the close to 200 giga watts for power projects announced or in the pipeline for development in Africa, added Ms. Songwe.
“So, let us strengthen our partnerships for an agenda to drive Africa’s energy transformation so that in a few years’ time we can all look back and celebrate the unleashing of Africa’s vast energy resources for its prosperity that is an agenda for an empowered, inclusive and transformed Africa.”
Over 200 participants are attending the conference which is discussing and identifying strategic priorities for scaling up renewables across Africa to overcome energy access gaps.
The Ethiopian Herald June 23/2019
BY GENET FEKADE
