Powering Africa for job creation

• Main Author: Ibrahim, Muazu
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Business; Business::Finance::Investments; Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources; Africa; Investment; Sustainable Energy; Employment
• Online Access: https://www.ntu.edu.sg/cas/news-events/news/details/powering-africa-for-job-creation; https://hdl.handle.net/10356/166350
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 commits countries to ensure that people have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy by 2030. Even though Africa is making progress in extending electricity to its population, improvement in access is slow relative to other parts of the world. Recent World Bank data shows that access to electricity in Africa increased from about 52% in 2018 to 53% in 2019. This suggests that, barely half of people in Africa get electricity. The gap looks even more stark when one looks at sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) independently. Less than half of those who live in SSA have access to electricity relative to over 90% of the population in Asia. Indeed, three out of four people globally with no electricity live in SSA while North Africa has near universal access. Disparity in access is also more pronounced at the locality level where almost 75% of households in urban areas have electricity compared to 25% of rural dwellers. With the population of the continent increasing, Africa faces twin challenges – first, how to achieve universal access to electricity and second, how to meet the energy requirement of the future?