What Can We Do About Africa's Electrical Power Problems?

The neighbor’s generator had just stopped rumbling. My lights blipped and the darkness I was engulfed in turned into light. I decided to turn –on the TV to watch news from Cameroon. Guess what? I stumbled on a report on CRTV about the Chief Executive Officer of AES Corporation being received by President Paul Biya. This CEO had announced to President Biya that they were creating an African power company with headquarters in Douala, Cameroon.

For those who do not know: AES is the mother company of AES/SONEL the utility company that is supposed to supply power in Cameroon. The fact that Cameroonians now refer to AES as Absence of Electricity Supply may speak volumes about the power situation in that country.

However, the paradox here is that I wasn’t watching this news story from a home in Cameroon. I was in Dakar, capital of Senegal. It is a city fully lit by street lights – that would surely make Tsimi Evouna, the government delegate (Super Mayor) of Yaounde pale with envy. But the irony is that most of the time, Dakar inhabitants go without power for hours. The frequency of power outages here is beyond the worst moments of the infamous “delestage” or “load-shedding” in 2003 in Cameroon. If you visit this part of the world, do not be surprised by the mammoth-like machines by the side of public and private edifices. Those are the generators that maintain power supply and keep us within modernity.

This power shortage palaver is not a Cameroon or Senegal only issue. Just the day before, I nearly got stuck with a bunch of Ouguiya (Mauritanian currency). The bureau de change where I had gone to switch the currency to Franc CFA was not working. The polite Arab lady at the counter simply said “pas éléctricité” (No power). I wondered how many small and medium sized businesses across Africa suffer under the weight of this power problem. I deliberately decided not to think at that time about our national economies and how they stagnate due to the absence of power. I finally changed my money into West African Franc CFA at a currency dealer who worked manually. “C’est l’Afrique!” a Mauritanian friend exclaimed.

After uncomfortable hours waiting for dodgy airlines (another African curse) I had managed to return to Dakar only to be welcomed by a blackout. As I ached about the situation, I consoled myself that even the richest economy on the continent South Africa had also gone black – without lights – recently. But is that truly consoling? Is it consoling to hear stories on the BBC about surgeons in Nigeria using a personal generator because power failed them in the middle of a surgical operation?

No, it is not consoling that our leaders lack foresight. This energy problem on the continent is a matter of short-sightedness and ill-adapted policies. The South African government conceded to that in the heat of the power problems in that country. In Nigeria, even the measures taken by the former administration to improve the power supply conditions were so poorly planned that generators are rumoured to have been abandoned at ports. In Cameroon, while the population grew and demand for power expanded the authorities did not deem it necessary to expand the country’s power production capacity notwithstanding the generating potential of the country. After mishandling their own utility company they thrust it to private (foreign) hands as a quick fix solution. It wasn’t.

A report commissioned by Public Service International before the January 2007 World Social Forum that held in Nairobi, Kenya revealed that “ Africa needs electricity: it does not need privatization.” This report sets the record straight on the failures of privatization in Africa. Instead it advocates policies based on proven successes. According to the writers of this report if better managed, with more transparency, power supply as a public utility under state support is often better than private business concerns. (View the full report in pdf below). Is that the way we should go? I can’t say.

What I have learnt is that while our African leaders are fondling about instead of planning energy supply for the future, Europe is stretching into their backyard to prepare the days to come. In an article entitled “ How Africa’s Deserts Can bring Europe Power”, the British newspaper – The Guardian – reported in 2007 that Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn (5 billion UK Pounds) on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East. More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain. Can you believe that?

While Africans are spending hours devising ways of how to cope with constant power cuts on the continent, others are planning to use what we’ve got to improve on their supply of electrical current. As I researched for this piece, I stumbled on a rather cynical contest that had been organized by the venerated BBC World Service website. The BBC planned to give a prize of a renewable energy lamp to the person with the most interesting story about how a power cut had affected him/her. The link may cause you to laugh but I would prefer you to revolt; think and share an idea to end Africa’s perennial power shortage crisis. Paul Hanrahan, the CEO of AES Corporation already has his solution that he proposed to President Biya; it is the creation of a giant African Power Corporation that will provide electricity to countries of the sub region including Congo Kinshasa, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal etc. What is your solution?

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Comments

[Michael P.]

There is a new world wide web emerging right before our eyes. It is a global energy network and, like the internet, it will change our culture, society and how we do business. More importantly, it will alter how we use, transform and exchange energy.

Enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. There is no energy supply problem, there is an energy distribution problem -- and the emerging solution is a new world wide web of electricity.

For more information, see http://www.terrawatts.com

[George Esunge Fominyen]

Michael P.

That was an interesting link you proposed. Many "green" solutions earmarked. What do others think? Are these workable in Africa?

GEF

[Dibo Nkele]

George, I think you really hit the nail on the head with this one. The problems affecting the African continent are to be blamed on many different heads, but surely our dodgy heads of states are the most to blame.

I also read somewhere that The Democratic Republic of Congo has the capacity to produce energy for the whole of Africa, but of course, it can't be done because the western investors are fighting amongst themselves. The welfare of the poor locals of RDC are not even part of the planning process.