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Hard To Ignore 600 Million People In Africa Who Lack Access to Electricity, – AEC Vice President Verner Ayukegba

November 18, 2022

By Samuel Ouma [caption id="attachment_102369" align="alignnone" width="1000"] At the African Energy Chamber, we have decided to champion making energy poverty history by 2030,says Verner Ayukegba[/caption] At least 600 million people in Africa cannot access electricity, according to Verner Ayukegba, Senior Vice President of the African Energy Chamber (AEC). During an interview with CNN’s Eleni Giokos in Cape Town, South Africa, last month during African Energy week, Ayukegba said the EAC is going the extra mile to make energy poverty a thing of the past by 2030. “We must focus on investing significantly into generating power for all those people. At the African Energy Chamber, we have decided to champion making energy poverty history by 2030. We need to throw everything at it because there is reliable and affordable energy at the core of development. If you don't have that, there's no point talking about access to education or healthcare,” said Verner Ayukegba. Even as Africa has abundant energy resources such as solar, bio, natural gas, oil, coal, and uranium, the continent is far from self-sufficient in energy. International Energy Agency Africa Energy report 2022 shows that only 160 million Africans had access to electricity between 2010 and 2019 despite 18 per cent of the world’s population living in the continent. According to the report, 50 per cent of those without access to electricity are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. On the other hand, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana are on track to achieve full access by 2030. To achieve universal access to affordable electricity by 2030, the International Energy Agency estimates that more than 70 million people will need to be connected each year. In its evaluation, IEA said expanding national grids is the most prudent and least expensive way to expand access to electricity. At the same time, Mr. Ayukegba revealed that more than 900 million people also lack access to clean cooking fuel. Most African residents still use wood fuel and charcoal as the primary energy sources, complicating the fight against climate change. The IEA estimate that around 120 million people a year must be moved away from dirty cooking fuels to attain universal access to clean cooking fuels and technology by 2030.

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