Akwaaba!

Energy Poverty in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA)
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It is often said that the rate of consumption of electricity in a nation is a measure of its standard of living. Hence the huge imbalance between the rich and poor nations can be quantified by the differences in their respective electricity consumption as illustrated in Table 1, which is on the Comparison of Annual Electricity Consumption in SSA with a few selected nations. The table was adapted from a table on the World Total Net Electricity Consumption 1980-2004 posted on the website on June 24 2006 by the Energy Information Administration, Washington DC. USA. The data for SSA, which are not from the original table, are the differences between the data for Africa and the corresponding sub-total for South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

It is clear from the table that Africa consumes just about 3% of the world’s electricity, and that is very low. The table also shows that South Africa alone accounts for about 50% of annual consumption of power in Africa. The sub-total data show that the six mentioned nations consume about 80% of power generated in Africa. Hence 47 nations in SSA, including Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and the tenth in the world, consume only about 20% electricity in Africa. That corresponds to only about 0.6% of the world’s annual consumption, - and that is less than that of Sweden, a small European nations.

Whereas the growth of electricity consumption is very appreciable in India, China and in Asian-Tiger nations of Malaysia and South Korea, the average growth of the six listed largest consumers in SSA is very sluggish. Some reports state that only about 25% of the population in SSA is connected to power supply, but not the fact that, the power supply is often associated with variable voltages and blackouts, which are very detrimental to sensitive instruments.

Table 2, on “The Correlation between the Human Development Index and Electricity Consumption per Capita”, was published in the website by the World Bank. This table also shows that the growth of electricity consumption per capita was quite appreciable everywhere, except in SSA, where the increase was negligible. But in the case of Ghana, the consumption of electricity per capita of 424 kWh in 1980, plunged to a mere 288 kWh in the year 2000.

Unlike advanced countries like the US, Canada and the UK, where oil is sparingly used for power production, its share in the meagre power production in SSA is substantial, exceeding 50% in many cases. Due to the fact that a barrel of oil is now well above $70 and the effects of global warming have adversely affected the performance of our hydro plants, several nations in SSA are suffering from clipping load shedding. It is obvious that our electricity consumption for 2006 or 2007 will be less than that of 2004, and that may lead to a decline in our quality of life; - widening the already huge gap between the advanced countries and the nations in SSA.

Over Dependence on Biomass
Our over dependency on biomass (firewood, harvest residues and charcoal), is directly related to the abject poverty and the rapid deforestation, which in turn, is closely linked with the degradation of the environment. This type of energy source, used in over 85% households in SSA, highlights the nonflexible question of gender inequality in SSA. Since cooking is often in the domain of housewives, it is the responsibility of women in rural areas to forage for a head-load of firewood almost every morning. Consumption of wood-fuel is growing at such a disturbing rate that the pace of deforestation is much greater than that of re-forestation. Consequently, this strenuous task for women and their school-going children is becoming even more difficult.

The urban women use mainly charcoal in their indoor kitchens. The obnoxious gases from firewood and especially from charcoal in our indoor kitchens are injurious primarily to the health of women and their daughters.

Since it can be argued that the emancipation of women in the West was seemingly made possible by electricity, because it lightened in many ways their household chores, it can be concluded that the empowerment of women in SSA is quite untenable without first addressing the energy needs in SSA, which virtually enslave them.

 

 

             With a Few Selected Countries 

Adapted from the World Total Net Electricity Consumption 1980-2004 posted on the website on June 24 2006 by the Energy Information Administration, Washington DC. USA.

 

 

 
 Table 2: The Correlation Between The Human Development Index

 

HDI Rank	Countries	1980	2000
1	Norway	18,289	24,427
2	Iceland	12,553	24,779
3	Sweden	10,216	14,471
4	Australia	5,393	9,006
30	South Korea	859	5,607
111	South Africa	3, 213	3,745
118	Gabon	617	697
120	Egypt	380	976
129	Ghana	424	288
146	Kenya	92	106
152	Nigeria	68	81
156	Senegal	96	121

Adapted from the World Bank's Report on Human Development Indicators 2003