Electricity Blackout Looms In Africa By 2030, Says World Bank

The World Bank says 600 million Africans are likely not to have electricity by 2030.

The Managing Director of Operations, Anna Bjerde, made this disclosure while addressing West and Central African Ministers of Finance in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

The magazine reported that the world bank chief is in Nigeria on a 3-day visit where she has been discussing with the country’s officials on how to implement economic reforms.

The Bretton Wood United States Based financial institution said on Tuesday that it has spent close to  $15 billion on 30 development projects, including in the power sector across the country.

Bjerde warning that a larger population of people in the continent could face severe power outages comes amidst the  worrying trend of constant power cuts in Nigeria.

The national grid had collapsed last Sunday leaving many households and businesses which depend on electricity frustrated.

The Transition Company of Nigeria, TCN, said it managed to restore power after some hitches, even though a major part of the country are still experiencing electricity rationing due to inadequate generation and distribution infrastructure.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Thursday, said the problem of electricity in the country is complicated in his response to the unstable power supply problem plaguing Africa’s economic power house.

The Minister who spoke yesterday at a stakeholders meeting, said: “Though they (electricity issues) are simple issues, they are in multiples, complicated and permeate all the sectors in the value chain.

“We discovered that most of the problems in the sector are not all technical or engineering-related, it actually has to do with liquidity, funding, structural or operational issues which anybody, that has the commitment, could resolve. Though they are simple issues, they are in multiples, complicated and permeates all the sectors in the value chain.”