Inadequate Power, a Challenge for COMESA Region Reveals latest LDC Report

Inadequate levels of power generation in the Common Market for East and Southern Africa - COMESA region, remains the main challenge in meeting the energy needs of the region.

COMESA Director of Infrastructure and Logistics, Jean Baptiste Mutabazi made the revelations at the launch of the latest report on the Least Developed Countries - LDC in Lusaka today.
Mr. Mutabazi says this has been compounded by low coverage of transmission and distribution infrastructure due to insufficient investment in the energy sector.

"As of today, the entire installed generation capacity the COMESA , which has a population of about 420 million people, is estimated to be about 68, 000 megawatts. This figure is very low compared to some countries such as France with a population of about 65 million (more than six ties less) and an estimated power generation capacity of about 1200, 000 megawatts. This underscores the absolute and urgent need in Africa in general and the COMESA region in particular to scale up investment in all formS of energy so that there is adequate access to energy for sustainable social and economic development." Mr. Mutabazi said.

The 2017 LDC report entitled transformation energy access, recommends how the countries can harness technology to achieve electricity access and further outlines the need for policies and regulations required to achieve this and the financing modalities that can be used.

the percentage of COMESA population with access to electricity is around 40%. the projections indicate that it will be around 80% by 2010 provided multi million dollar investments are made in the next ten years.

further more the high cost of energy in the COMESA member states (for instance the average cost in the region is around US$0.10 to US$0.20 per kilowatt hour) is an impediment to COMESA regional economic growth and competitiveness in national, regional and international trade.

It is also estimated that the infrastructure deficit has reduces the COMESA region annual growth of 5% to 6% by 2 percent-points. in other words, the COMESA region would have achieved average growth of more than 7% over the past decade had it not been due to infrastructure deficit.

The 2017 LDC report stresses that energy poverty should be seen as an opportunity for investment in power generation and regional inter-connectors.




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