COMESA set to end energy poverty

By MUYANI SHINJABALE INADEQUATE level of power generation, low coverage of transmission and distribution infrastructure have been cited as the main challenges with regards to the energy needs of the region.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Director of Infrastructure and Logistics Division at the secretariat Jean Mutabazi attributed these setbacks to insufficient investment in the energy sector and over reliance of the population on biomass energy.

Mr. Mutabazi was speaking during the launch of the Least Developed Countries Report 2017 under the theme Transformational Energy Access at COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka.

He said inefficiency and unreliability of existing energy infrastructure services, increased demand due to economic growth, rapid population growth, prohibitive cost of operating energy infrastructure facilities and low ability to prepare bankable projects were challenges the region faced.

“As of today, the entire installed generation capacity of COMESA, which has a population of about 420 million people, is estimated to be around 68,000 megawatts.

“This figure is very low compared to some countries such as France with a population of about 65 million and an estimated power generation capacity of about 120, 000 megawatts which is almost twice the entire COMESA generation capacity.

“This underscores the absolute and urgent need in Africa in general and COMESA region in particular to scale up investments in all forms of energy so that there is adequate access to energy for sustainable social and economic growth,” said Mr. Mutabazi.

He said the percentage of COMESA population with access to electricity was around 45 per cent with projections that indicated that it wouldbe around 80 per cent by 2040 provided multi-billion dollar investments were made in the next 10 years.

“Electricity consumption per capita for the COMESA region was estimated to be around 605 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per person in 2015 while it was 1,169 kWh in other developing countries.

It is also estimated that the infrastructure deficit has reduced the COMESA average annual growth of 5 per cent points meaning COMESA region would have achieved average growth of more than 7 per cent over the past decade had it not been due to the infrastructure deficit,” said Mr. Mutabazi.