- Access to energy and energy security remain critical for Africa to realise United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 7.
- Countries like Nigeria need to shift from reliance on diesel/PMS generators to improve health and lower the cost of electricity.
The Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Energy Plc, Roger Brown, has said affordable and reliable energy provides the right platform for African businesses to create and retain jobs for its fast-growing population. According to him, reliable and affordable energy will as well as make the continent sustainable.
At the ongoing Africa Oil Week (AOW) in Cape Town, South Africa, Brown said access to energy and energy security remain critical for Africa. This is especially for the continent to realise the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 7. He said up to 600 million Africans have little or no access to energy because energy infrastructure has remained poor and lacks suitable investments.
The Seplat CEO noted, “Affordable and reliable energy allows businesses to create jobs in Africa, giving the fast-growing population a future in their country of birth, thereby avoiding mass migration. Nine hundred million Africans cook using biomass, causing all sorts of problems. It steals time from the women and children who must collect firewood for cooking and causes smoke pollution. This, in turn, causes poor health, estimated to cost the lives of nearly 500,000 Africans every year. This is unacceptable, and we need to change it.
“Where people have access to electricity, as in Nigeria, it’s often from small-scale imported generators that run on diesel or petrol. That’s part of the problem we have to address, especially in Nigeria. So, it’s clear we need to increase access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy. But at the moment, only three per cent of the world’s investment in energy systems goes into Africa.”
Brown further stressed that Africa has the right to develop and must use its natural resources to create energy access. He said funding energy transition cannot be solely by debt or outsourced. He stated that countries like Nigeria need to move away from relying on diesel/PMS generators. According to him, this will improve health and lower the cost of electricity, severely holding back development in all sectors.