THE HUFFINGTON POST
*Obama's Bogus Phoney Clap-trapping “Africa Power Initiative”***
*Obadias Ndaba, Huffington Post, USA, 4 July 2013*
Following in the footsteps of his two presidential predecessors, Obama
unveiled his signature Africa initiative: Power Africa. Bill Clinton
initiated the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade
agreement that allows African countries to export tariff-free goods to
U.S. markets. George W. Bush initiated the President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat HIV/AIDS, an initiative that made him
popular on the continent.
There is no question that electricity in Africa is inaccessible and
unaffordable to most people. Even for the wealthy, the limited supply
makes its availability unreliable, and frequent power outages, or
"/délestage/," as it is known in Francophone countries, are a reality
for Africa's residents. Of the 1.2 billion world citizens who live in
the dark, around 550 million live in Africa.
The African Development Bank (AFDB) estimates that only 42 percent of
people in Africa have access to electricity, compared with 75 percent in
the developing world. In Sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity is
even lower, at 30 percent overall and 14 percent in rural areas. This
lack of light has ripple effects across many other areas: Children don't
get a quality education because they are unable to study at night, and
modern health care facilities become inaccessible. Clearly, there is a
lot to be done. To close the gap, the World Bank estimates a need of $93
billion in annual investment in Africa's infrastructure over a period of
10 years -- half of which is needed just for power supply.
With this gap, Africa needs huge national, regional and international
investments to "bring light where there is darkness," as Obama put it.
In a speech at the University of Cape Town, Obama pledged $7 billion
from the U.S. government over the next five years to double access to
electricity in Africa. Here is what he said:
/“So today, I am proud to announce a new initiative. We've been dealing
with agriculture. We've been dealing with health. Now we're going to
talk about power: Power Africa, a new initiative that will double access
to power in sub-Saharan Africa. Double it. [Applause.] We're going to
start by investing $7 billion in U.S. government resources. We're going
to partner with the private sector, who themselves have committed more
than $9 billion in investment.”/
That's right, he said the word "double" twice. The U.S. government
pledged $7 billion, while the private sector will chip in with an
additional $9 billion over a period of five years, doubling Africa's
access to electricity!
Then news headlines caught the phrase: "US promises billions to double
Africa's access to electricity," said NPR; "Obama Announces Plan To
Boost Africans' Electricity," declared the Bloomberg News; "Obama
pledges to help double electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa," the Christian
Science Monitor said. Forbes has perhaps the best analysis, with enough
details of the deal, which is more of an investment than a pledge to
help -- a welcome shift.
It is commendable that the Obama administration wants to help Africa
build power grids and get electricity for its people. But let us
recognize that $7 billion is a dent in Africa's electricity needs, and
there is little evidence to back up the claim that an amount as small as
$7 billion -- or $16 billion, if we include the private sector
investment -- will "double" access to electricity for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa is already spending over $45 billion every year in infrastructure
(according to World Bank estimates of 2009), and a large bulk of it goes
to the power supply. The question becomes: How is $7 billion over five
years -- or $1.4 billion every year -- going to do the magic of doubling
access to electricity?
Bright Simons of IMANI, a think tank in Accra, Ghana, puts it this way
in the Financial Times:
/“If all the electricity generated in Africa was shared equally,
each household will have enough to power a normal light-bulb for
about 3.5 hours a day per person. With Obama's new initiative, this
would increase by roughly 18 more minutes if implementation was
perfect. /
/“Because Africa's electricity challenges are not due to capital
investment in generation alone, implementation can never be perfect.
For example, if all the money being voted for this initiative was
spent on building power plants, as the preceding scenario assumes,
one will still have to contend with maintenance challenges and,
connected with that, efficient administration of the power system,
including investment in transmission and distribution, as well as
government policy on ensuring that people pay realistic prices for
the power they consume./
/“In many African countries this has been far from simple. Once
these factors are taken into consideration, it will be remarkable if
the initiative succeeds in providing five more minutes of electrical
light per person per African household per day.”/
It is true that Africa desperately needs more investments in order to
meet its needs in power supply, and Obama's new initiative is welcome,
but it won't double Africa's access to electricity. The math just
doesn't add up. It might help a little -- maybe five more minutes per
person per day, as Simmons suggested -- in addition to the current 3.5
hours. That is a good enough help, but it should not be inflated.
*From:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/obadias-ndaba/obama-power-africa_b_3543001.html*
**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
_*Communist University*_*:*
_CU Downloads_: _*sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses/*
<https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses/>_
_E-mail forums_: _*CU*
<https://groups.google.com/group/communist-university>_; _*YCLSA*
<https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum>_; _*CU-Africa*
<https://groups.google.com/group/CUAfrica>_; _*SADTU*
<https://groups.google.com/group/sadtu-political-education-forum>_
_Blog_s: _*CU* <http://domza.blogspot.com/>_; _*YCLSA*
<http://wftu-yclsa-cu-jhb.blogspot.com/>_; _*CU-Africa*
<http://cuafrica.blogspot.com/>_; _*SADTU*
<http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/>_
_Moderator_: _*[email protected]* <mailto:[email protected]>
_
_
_
--
--
You are subscribed. This footer can help you.
Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this
message.
You can visit the group WEB SITE at
http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options,
pages, files and membership.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't
have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in
the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat):
[email protected] .
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
