Powering Africa a Challenge, but Could Charge Wellbeing; Fifty-percent of households get light from power lines.
Byline: Bob Tortora
Synopsis: About 50% of all households in 26 sub-Saharan African countries mainly get their light from power lines, underscoring how difficult Barack Obama's new initiative to double access to electric power in Africa will likely be to implement.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup surveys in 26 sub-Saharan African countries in 2012 suggest U.S. President Barack Obama's new initiative to double access to electric power in Africa will be difficult to implement, particularly given the geographic distribution of households without power. About 50% of all households in these 26 countries mainly get their light from power lines, but access varies dramatically by country.
During his recent visit to sub-Saharan Africa, Obama unveiled the Power Africa initiative, vowing to help bring "light where there is currently darkness." The initiative's first phase includes a $7 billion U.S. investment to bring access to at least 20 million new households and businesses in six countries -- Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Liberia, and Kenya -- in the next five years.
An estimated 50% of households in these 26 countries use power from an electric line (48%) or solar panels or solar torches (2%) as their main source of light. Note that this estimate does not quantify how long these households have power nor does it discuss providing power to businesses.
In addition, 28% of households use a kerosene or fuel lamp as the main source of light, with the remaining 22% using flashlights (7%), candles (6%), generators (4%), or batteries/car batteries (3%) and other sources such as firewood and gas lamps. So about 58 million households use a "sustainable" source for the main household light, while about as many households use sources that are not sustainable such as kerosene or fuel lamps, flashlights, candles, and others.
Bringing power to sub-Saharan Africa is further complicated by the nature of the geography of the households without power. About 11% of the households in the 26 countries are located on farms, about 69% are located in a small village or town, and 20% are located in a medium or large city or suburb of a medium of large city. As urbanization increases, the percentage of households without power from an electric line or solar panel decreases.
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