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‘Only 33% of sub-Saharan Africans have access to electricity’

By Roseline Okere
22 October 2015   |   3:29 am
ONLY one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity and, when available, it can be unreliable and unaffordable, the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, said in speech presented at the Global Launch of “Poverty In A Rising Africa” Report.
Powerline

Powerline

ONLY one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity and, when available, it can be unreliable and unaffordable, the World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, said in speech presented at the Global Launch of “Poverty In A Rising Africa” Report.

According to him, in most countries, infrastructure is a major constraint on doing business and depress business productivity by around 40 per cent in some places.

He said that the single-largest economic issue in Ghana and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa remained the lack of consistent electricity, even if the country has made progress in increasing access in recent years. “Still, the private sector cannot thrive without access to reliable and competitively priced modern energy”, he added.

He stated: “Let me give the example of how it affects one business here in Ghana – a company called Blue Skies, which employs about 3,000 people, most of them under the age of 30. The company delivers fresh fruit and juices to supermarkets in Europe each year. But when the power goes out – a near-daily occurrence – Blue Skies relies on diesel-powered generators to keep production going. The company has already spent about $330,000 on back-up fuel this year.

“We are now helping Ghana increase its supply of clean and affordable energy. We’re providing $700 million dollars in guarantees for Ghana’s Sankofa gas project. This will fuel up to 40 percent of Ghana’s currently installed generation capacity, improve the reliability, and replace polluting fuels with cleaner, more affordable resources. Ghana will be able to reduce oil imports by 12 million barrels per year and CO2 emissions by around 8 million tons over five years.

“This won’t fix Ghana’s energy constraints, but improving the availability of clean-energy supply is an important part of the solution. These are the types of solutions that Ghana and other African countries will need to attract and grow businesses, to create jobs, and to help people lift themselves out of poverty – and stay out of poverty”.

The report estimates that 388 million people – or 43 per cent of all people living in Sub-Saharan Africa – lived in extreme poverty in 2012, the last year that figures were available, a decrease of 5 million people from 2011.

The report, “Poverty in a Rising Africa,” was released in Ghana at a high-level event commemorating End Poverty Day, which was attended by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, government leaders, and civil society partners.

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