For Africa to achieve major development goals and power its own economies, energy capital should be deployed to the continent.
The Chief Executive Officer, Seplat Energy Plc, Roger Brown, said this at the World Energy Capital Assembly (WECA), held in London, where he delivered a keynote, titled: “Accessing Capital for Energy Projects in Africa.”
He said the world can increase global energy security and ensure that everyone has access to affordable and reliable energy, stressing that Africa has the capacity not only to be self-sufficient, but to also export energy, according to a company statement yesterday.
Brown was quoted to have said: “We can, through investment in Africa’s energy infrastructure, help to accelerate development in Africa, to increase prosperity and improve its chances of achieving all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“And we can help to guide Africa’s energy transition by encouraging investment in lower-carbon sources of energy, while at the same time encouraging Africa at both government and corporate level to improve ESG performance, meaning better environmental care through lower emissions, creating jobs and helping social development, and by improving governance at all levels.
“Thus, energy capital wins, Africa wins and the environment wins. We can achieve all these wins at little incremental cost to the environment.”
He noted that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the largest infrastructure deficit is in the power sector. Whether measured in terms of generation capacity, electricity consumption, or security of supply, Africa’s power infrastructure delivers only a fraction of the service found elsewhere.
We can, through investment in Africa’s energy infrastructure, help to accelerate development in Africa, to increase prosperity and improve its chances of achieving all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Furthermore, he said West Africa has one of the lowest rates of electricity access in the world; only about 42% of the total population (half of the global access rate of 87%), and 8% of rural residents have access to electricity.
He added that fewer than half of the utilities in sub-Saharan Africa recover their operating costs due to shortage of local capacity and end-user payment issues, resulting in gross domestic product (GDP) losses as high as 4% in some countries.
Brown identified lack of access to modern and reliable energy as one of the most important bottlenecks for development of higher value-added services and industries across sub-Saharan Africa.
He added that improving energy security is a vital tool for reducing vulnerabilities to external price shocks and for building the foundations for sustainable growth
According to him, energy security implies a country’s ability to ensure integrity of assets and developed markets. It measures capacity to meet current and future energy demand reliably in areas such as power generation, operating costs, evacuation and distribution network integrity.
This indicator, he explained, has achieved 40% growth from 2000 to 2021 (however more needs to be done to develop reliable and secure energy).
He argued that Sub-Saharan Africa needs greater investments to cover the energy infrastructure gap and bridge the shortage of energy supply and energy services, he advised.
