Promoting sustainable use of renewable natural resources to foster socio-economic

transformation in Africa, as an African leader

The world we are living in today is more connected than ever, people can communicate and
collaborate except where there is no electricity. The world has seen new challenges emerge;
these include the melting of polar ice, the increase of greenhouse effect gases causing the
heating of the troposphere, generalized pollution, spread of disease, and boom of population. A
few decades ago, the idea of switching from fossil energy to renewable resources seemed to
have no economic gain, the level of threat was not yet alarming and there was no need for
everyone to have electricity: a luxury in that time, but a necessity today. Nowadays, fossil fuels
reserves are shrinking down all over the world; and in addition, their usage has been
threatening the earth through excessive emission of greenhouse gases.
With the population of the world increasing considerably, it has become undeniable that the
fossil fuels and hydropower won’t provide safe energy to the huge population; prohibiting their
use even though there are enough resources to last for another 150 years. These energies
disrupt the climate, the ecosystem, and the habitat. Nuclear energy also does not seem to be a
convenient source of energy on this planet due to the production of radioactive waste and risks
of hazardous accidents as witnessed at Chernobyl in 1986, on April 26. These types of energy
can cause more harm than good if they are to be exploited for the huge needs of the future.
Elon Musk, South African-American entrepreneurs and renewable energy tycoon once said,
“We are running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much
carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe”. So, in
this essay, I want to discuss Africa’s position in that “experiment”, what is a good fit for Africa
regarding energy supply, what are the barriers and opportunities to changing energy supply in
Africa and what I will do about the barriers and opportunities, and finally, what are the prospects
of the future once Africa has adopted renewable energies. I will articulate my discussion on the
benefits of renewable resources.
Africa is already in a situation that is not comfortable for the people. With a population of 1.29
billion (16.87% of the world), Africa has the fastest growing population as a continent, 10 of the
poorest countries in the world are African; and Nigeria, the biggest economy we have, is less
than Iran, $375.8 Billion against $439.5 Billion in GDP(World development indicator, 2018). The
world population is projected to reach 11.2 billion in 2100 with Africa being the biggest
contributor at a steady growth rate of 2.55% annually (United Nations, n.d). Yet today, and a
great number of Africans do not have access to clean water and electricity, hindering growth
and the possibility to innovate. This puts Africa in a position where it is most vulnerable to the
challenges, it must take the toughest measures for the transition of energy. Most of Africa’s
population lives at less than $1.09 and have no access to the grid power up to 80% in Sub-
Saharan Africa. The transition is a must, it will guarantee clean energy, therefore fewer
collateral challenges; it will also guarantee ease of access to more Africans through the use of
mini-grids and individual power units, and in addition, Africa has a big renewable resources
potential. I will make sure I leverage those factors to make sure Africa is not left behind as the
consequences of being so are heavy.
There are many non-renewable energy resources in Africa, but the amounts of renewable
resources are enormous as well. Africa is endowed with great hydropower potential that is not
fully harnessed (only 7%), it has also large reserves of oil; namely in Nigeria, Libya and
Somalia; large coal reserves in South Africa that can be used for many years to come; however,
these sources of energy are difficult to spread among the scattered population of Africa and it
has always been a great challenge to connect households to the grid. These sources would not
even be the right choice since they pollute a lot, using such energies, access for many would

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still be impossible, and they do cause serious collateral damages. Africa is endowed with solar
energy in a surprisingly uniform way across Africa; particularly for southern Africa, biogas,
bagasse, and wind power. The latter sources are more preferable because their usage limits the
problem of the greenhouse effect and they are unlimited and inexhaustible; furthermore, they
can be easy to distribute, even to remote individual homes and villages across Africa by using
mini-grids, for instance, the Earth receives from the sun in an hour 430 quintillion Joules, more
energy than we use in a year (Harrington, 2015). Another important source of energy that Africa
can boast about is the geothermal energy that is abundant, with an estimated capacity of up to
10.000MW in Kenya only as an example, (Energy regulatory commission, n.d). I will ease the
adoption of these energies, not only because powering the growing population with polluting
resources would cause an increase of pollution, but also to leverage the flexibility of these
energies and ease of accessibility. These energies are necessary for most African population to
get access to power that information devices and tech gadgets need, they will be able to
support development if they live in a lighted environment.
There are many barriers to the establishment of renewable technologies in Africa. These include
lack of specialized personnel and technical expertise, legal and law barriers that are due to bad
governance in most African countries, making foreign investment less likely to penetrate; low-
income families that can hardly afford even the minimum payment for a small scale installation
of few power appliances. To address this problem, at the government level, I would join the
SDG71 plan to partner with international organizations. At the private level, I would lead to the
vote for more permissive laws and regulations to ease attraction of private investments such as
M-Kopa2 and BBOXX2, companies that provide pay-as-you-go power solutions to populations
across Africa. I recognize that some people in Africa, due to poverty, wouldn’t afford even these
options offered by the private companies, for this reason, I would lead the government to
allocate a part of the national budget to the transition and provide services that look like M-Kopa
for no profit, but as government aid to the population. For the problem of lack of technology and
qualified personnel, I would lead to partnering with foreign Nations in order to ease a certain
transfer of technology as happened between Russia and China. I know this would work because
foreign nations are willing to contribute; Rwanda, one of the fastest growing nations in Africa,
has built one of such powers, the Kigali Solaire which already supplies electricity to Kigali, one
solar plant that was built by Burundi at the Hospital of Kamenge of Bujumbura with Japanese
partnership, and the Agahozo shalom of Rwanda that was built with the partnership of the
United States and Israel. I would also lead my country to join the Eastern Africa energy corridor
and struggle to reflect the IRENA3’s clean energy corridor that is recommended by the African
Union.
To promote Africa’s renewable resources in order to foster development and socio-economic
transformation, I will help our government understand the situation that Africa is facing, the risks
and unreliability of non-renewable resources, and I will transform the legal system to make it
more penetrative for foreign and private investments, sign partnerships with foreign nations to
ease the transfer of technology and investment. After such transformation has taken place,
Africa would spend more time participating in the 4th industrial revolution that would be boosted
by the increased numbers of people who have been able to accede to renewable power. This
would help Africa make steps to catching up with other nations in the new industrial revolution. I
believe that the real advantage of renewable resources is the ability to focus on development
because there is no pollution challenge, isolated power for individuals will solve the old problem
about connecting remote homes to the grid; with this in place, it will be easier for startups to
impact people’s lives since their phones will always be charged and their homes lit, granting
access to information and improved life conditions. Once for all, the great population of Africa
will be massively involved in the development of their own home.

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 References and other information
Energy regulatory commission. (n.d), geothermal resources, Retrieved from
https://renewableenergy.go.ke/index.php/content/28 on June 21, 2019, 1:55 PM
Harrington, R. (2015, September 29). This incredible fact should get you psyched about
solar power. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-
the-potential-of-solar-power-2015-9?IR=T
United Nations. (n.d). Population. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-
depth/population/index.html on June 21, 2019, 2:00 PM
World Bank, World development indicators. (2018). Gross domestic product Nigeria.
Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_
mktp_cd&idim=country:NGA&hl=en&dl=en June 21, 2019, at 2:15 AM
World Bank, World development indicators. (2018). Gross domestic product Iran.
Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_
mktp_cd&idim=country:NGA&hl=en&dl=en June 21, 2019, at 2:15 AM
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SDG7, Sustainable development Goal 7
2
M-Kopa and BBOXX are companies that provide renewable energies to households
and small business in Africa
3
IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency