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People & Power: Geldof, Masiyiwa Say Africa Can Lead The World In Renewable Energy

People & Power: Geldof, Masiyiwa Say Africa Can Lead The World In Renewable Energy

Two of the world’s most powerful people in their respective sectors describe Africa’s lack of access to clean, affordable energy as both a scandal and an opportunity, according to a guest column in the Huffington Post.

The column was co-written by Bob Geldof, an Irish musician, businessman, and founder of Band Aid; and Strive Masiyiwa, a London-based Zimbabwean and founder of Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless.

Here’s an excerpt from the column.

From Huffington Post.

Africa’s lack of access to clean, affordable energy is a scandal. The poorest households in Africa are spending the equivalent $10 per kilowatt-hour on lighting. The average cost of that same kilowatt-hour of electricity is $0.12 in the U.S. and $0.15 in the U.K.

For too long, governments in Africa have subsidized inefficient and often corrupt energy utilities, following the outdated, high-carbon pathway the rich world has followed. This has kept costs high and failed to extend the benefits of electrification much beyond urban centers.

But Africa’s energy deficit is not only a scandal. It also presents an enormous opportunity, and one that offers a triple dividend — reducing poverty in Africa, promoting economic prosperity and safeguarding the sustainability of our planet.

Africa has an opportunity to lead the world, and leap to a totally renewable energy base, in the same way as the continent has leapfrogged from fixed-line telephony straight to mobile communications.

What does that opportunity look like? The Africa Progress Panel, of which we are both panel members, sets out the vision in its latest report, Power, People, Planet: Seizing Africa’s Energy and Climate Opportunities.

For example, in a continent bathed in sunlight, if families bought new, highly efficient home solar kits, they could tap into clean, sustainable electricity to power LED light bulbs, fans and TVs, and to charge mobile phones.

Today the initial $200 cost of a solar kit is a barrier for the very poor. But here, too, lies an opportunity. Costs are falling rapidly and families currently could pay off the solar kit at 25 cents a day, through a credit structure that collects money through mobile payments.

Access to clean energy is the route out of poverty for hundreds of millions of Africans. It opens up economic opportunity, enables access to education, and reduces the pollution that causes ill-health.

Governments and development partners should invest and help private and public investors channel an additional $35 billion into creating reliable utilities, increasing electricity generation 10-fold, boosting transmission networks and connecting families and business. In turn, this will expand the customer base for future growth and tax revenues.

This investment will help the continent’s rapidly growing economies grow even faster. But, most crucially, it does so in a way that protects the climate. By leading the world in using clean energy sources and driving a low-carbon revolution, Africa can help support a sustainable global economy that grows within our planetary boundaries and limitations.

This is Africa’s “light bulb” moment — and that bulb must be powered by renewable clean energy and financed through smart investments and policies that yield a triple dividend not only for Africans, but the whole planet.

Read more at Huffington Post.