How Renewable Energy is Powering Africa’s Growth

Energy is the key to development and the foundation for industrialisation. Considering Africa’s unparalleled potential for renewables, the continent’s starting point for the transformation of the energy sector is strong.

Electricity supply in Africa is currently lagging considerably. Most people in Sub-Saharan Africa face severe energy deficit. Less than half of the population had access to electricity in 2018. Africa is well behind the rest of the world concerning the deployment of renewable energy. In 2018, only 20 percent of the electricity generated in Africa was from renewable sources. Compared with the rest of the world, investment is low. In 2019, twothirds of all newly added energy capacity for supplying electricity worldwide was based on renewable sources.

In recent times, Africa has seen rapid economic growth, with a corresponding increase in energy demand. Sadly, in most African countries, supply lags grossly behind demand. For example, Nigeria, regarded as Africa’s biggest economy, has continued to battle power outages for decades despite spending billions of Dollars in foreign loans to improve the power situation. A recent World Bank report painted a heart-wrenching picture of power conditions in Nigeria.

The Bretton Woods institution said 85 million Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity -- this represents 43% percent of the country’s population - and makes Nigeria the country with the largest energy access deficit in the world. The Washington-based institution further said businesses in Nigeria lose about $29bn annually because of unreliable electricity.

And just like in Nigeria, there are as many as 30 countries in Africa where recurrent electricity outages and load shedding are the norms. About 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity, and approximately 730 million people rely on traditional uses of biomass.

However, the continent is gradually witnessing a massive deployment of renewable energy – which has led to significant cost reductions and performance improvements.

This has seen some African countries already reaping benefits from proven renewable energy technologies. Along with helping to meet energy needs in a cost-effective, secure, and environmentally sustainable manner, renewable energy has also strengthened socio-economic development.

The energy mix in Africa

The energy supply gap has created an opportunity for big-ticket renewable projects to bridge the shortfall with several distributed power innovations that are smaller scale, lower cost, and quicker to market.

The African continent is endowed with large renewable energy potential, varying in types, across diverse geographic areas. Solar resources are abundant everywhere, while biomass and hydropower potential are more plentiful in the wet, forested central and southern regions. Wind resources are of the highest quality in the north, the east, and the southern regions, while geothermal energy is concentrated along the Great Rift Valley—located in East Africa. These resources, and the settings in which they exist, can point to countryspecific renewable energy solutions to fit each state’s strengths and needs.

Hydropower remains the most developed on the continent

Africa has abundant hydropower resources. It is estimated that around 92% of technically feasible potential has not yet been developed. Central Africa has about 40% of the continent’s hydro resources, followed by East and West Africa, each having about 28% and 23% respectively (Hydropower and Dams, 2014). At the end of 2014, there was 28 GW of hydro capacity installed in Africa. This makes hydropower by far the most important renewable power generation option deployed today.

Of the resources available, the Congo River has the largest discharge of African rivers, followed by the Zambezi, the Niger, and the Nile. Hydropower resources can be utilised in several ways, depending on the size of the resource. Large-scale hydro resources are often utilised in combination with a storage dam and are suitable for the production of grid electricity.

Small hydro plants, (1 MW to 10 MW capacity) may or may not incorporate dams, while mini- (100 kW to 1 MW), micro- (5 – 100 kW), and pico-hydro (less than 5 kW) are suited to run-ofriver (no storage dam) installations for the provision of distributed electricity to areas remote from the electricity grid.

Hydropower is dependent on a reliable supply of water, and periods of drought have a detrimental effect on the availability of hydropower stations. The droughts in Kenya at the turn of the decade resulted in extensive power outages due to a shortage in hydro capacities.

Solar panels are fast gaining popularity

Africa has an exceptional solar resource that can be harnessed for electricity generation and thermal applications. The desert regions of North Africa and some parts of Southern and East Africa enjoy particularly long sunny days with a high intensity of irradiation. Sahelian and Tropical conditions also feature strong solar irradiation. Solar energy can be utilised at various scales, making it suitable from the household and community levels to industrial and national scale operations.

Two types of technologies exist for power generation: solar photovoltaic (PV) and CSP. The former can be universally used, in applications ranging from household systems to utility-scale, while the latter is typically a technology that performs optimally in utility-scale projects situated in the desert regions. Overall, Africa’s solar power generation potential exceeds future demand by orders of magnitude. Even the smallest countries on the continent have at least a few gigawatts of potential for either technology.

Africa’s solar PV capacity has grown exponentially in recent years but from a low base. Cumulative installed capacity at the end of 2014 was 1334 megawatt (MW), more than ten times larger than in 2009 (127 MW). South Africa is leading this rapid growth, adding nearly 780 MW between 2013 and 20141. Kenya has also seen sizable investments in solar PV, with 60 MW installed by 2014 (IRENA, 2015b).

This accelerated growth will continue, as more than 14 GW of solar PV and 6 GW of CSP are either announced or in the pipeline (GlobalData, 2015). For example, a single company, SkyPower, has bilateral agreements in place to install 7 GW of solar PV capacity in the coming five years in Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Deployment of CSP in Africa is in the earliest phase, as is the case worldwide. Four African countries, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa have deployed a total of six CSP projects as of March 2015. Their installed capacity amounts to just over 180 MW (IRENA, 2015b).

Projects totalling 6.4 GW are underway, including some in Botswana, Namibia, Sudan, Tunisia (GlobalData, 2015).

CSP is attractive because its efficiency increases with irradiation levels, which is not the case for solar PV where efficiency declines with rising collector temperatures. Given that the irradiation levels correspond also with the demand for air conditioning, solar CSP would reduce the need for peak capacity.

This feature is attractive in desert countries where solar irradiation is particularly strong. CSP systems offer the opportunity to store solar energy as heat, for use to generate electricity during periods of low or no sunshine.

How has the continent fared in harnessing Wind as a Source of Energy?

Wind is converted into useful energy utilising wind turbines, for use either to drive electric generators or to directly power pumps and other machinery.

Countries with especially high wind quality include all those in North Africa; Niger in West Africa; Chad in north-Central Africa; Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia in Central Africa; Kenya, Uganda; Tanzania, and Zambia in East Africa; and Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, in Southern Africa.

The wind industry in Africa is still small and concentrated, although substantial progress has been observed over the last ten years. In August 2017, total capacity was recorded at 4.1GW, the equivalent of four conventional nuclear power plants. This figure is slightly below the 1% mark of the cumulative global capacity according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) but still a significant increase from 1.1GW in 2011. The South African REIPPPP, launched in 2011, is mainly responsible for this marked expansion.

The country is by far the biggest producer with more than 1.6GW of operational wind energy capacity, followed by Morocco. Egypt was at the forefront of the industry back in the 1980s and the first sizeable project it built was a 4-turbine wind farm with a capacity of 400kW.

In 2019, Africa’s largest wind farm, the 310-megawatt (MW) Lake Turkana Wind Power project, was officially inaugurated. Lake Turkana Wind Power project is made up of 365 turbines, each having a capacity of 850 kilowatts.

The Nigerian government has confirmed the completion of a 10MW Wind Farm located at Lamber Rimi in the northern state of Katsina -- which is the first of its kind in Nigeria. Meanwhile, African countries with natural gas reserves – such as Tunisia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Mozambique – are expanding their natural gas generation capacity. For countries with viable reserves, natural gas provides cost-competitive, flexible electricity that improves the security of supply which also provides balancing power for integrating variable energy sources.

Natural gas is generally not subject to the same financing restrictions from international donors, export credit institutions, and financing institutions as coal is. While investing in natural gas extends the use of fossil fuels in electricity systems, it can also play a role in supporting the expansion of variable intermittent renewable energy generation as a medium-term bridge technology.

Nigeria’s Economic Decline and the Danger of Rising Seccession Agitations, Terrorism

Nigeria as a country bleeds on several fronts: economic recession, crime and homicidal waves. The nation is battered from all ends by home-grown terrorism, ethnic chauvinism, extreme Islamic fundamentalism and clamors for secession. The list is endless. Yet, it appears that the government at the centre is turning a blind eye to the monstrous williwaw before their very eyes.

Nigeria is a key regional actor in West Africa and accounts for about half of West Africa’s population, with a huge and rapidly growing population - estimated to become the third largest in the world by the end of the century.

In 2020, the Nigerian economy shrank by 1.8 per cent, driven by economic downturns of the COVID-19 crisis, its deepest decline since 1983. The external context was marked by capital outflows, intensified risk aversion, low oil prices, and shrinking foreign remittances. The country’s economy grew by 0. 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Nigeria’s GDP stands at N40 trillion (U.S $105.5 billion). Despite the reopening of the country’s land borders in December 2020, inflation is staggering at an all-time high of 18.2 per cent, in the last four years. The upward trend in inflation is largely due to the unprecedented spate of insecurity in northern Nigeria, the country’s “food basket”. Higher food prices largely caused the continuous rise in

inflation. Accordingly, food inflation peaked at a 16-year high of 23 per cent in March 2021.

In the same vein, the unemployment rate is recorded at 33.3 per cent despite the country’s recovery from recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, the highest level ever. And this is just the first quarter of this year. The World Bank estimated an increase in the number of poor Nigerians to 90 million in 2020 from 83 million in 2019; this corresponds to a rise in headcount poverty ratio to 44.1 per cent in 2020 from 40.1 per cent in 2019.

President Muhammadu Buhari stated recently that the government has lifted 10.5 million Nigerians out of poverty in the last two years through its national social investment programmes (NSIP). Data from the World Poverty Clock shows that within the two-year period referenced by the President, at least 10 million Nigerians slipped into extreme poverty, rather than come out of it, as the president claimed. The World Bank reports that in the last one year, seven million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty. A figure that contradicts the president’s claim. Many find the president’s claim grossly misleading, as it doesn’t reflect the reality on ground.

Official figures from NBS show worsening poverty rates, with 142.2 per cent growth in food inflation and over 82.9 million Nigerians unable to afford their daily meals. The country now ranks 98th out of 107 in the Global Hunger Index. Nigeria’s debt profile is increasingly skyrocketing. The recent loan request of N2.3 trillion approved by the parliament, which many have adjudged a rubber stamp of the Presidency, has pushed the country’s debt profile to an unprecedented level of $108 billion.

According to the officials of the Organized Private Sector (OPS), the growing national debt is a concern, as the profile has grown from N12.6 trillion in 2015 to N26.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2019 - an increase of 108 percent

With oil prices trading below the 2020 budget benchmark, debt service commitment and recurrent spending are beginning to crowd out capital expenditure and the trajectory is not consistent with the country’s national aspiration to build infrastructure and a competitive economy. The capacity to service the current stock of debt raises serious sustainability concerns. A concern the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Manufacturers Association of Nigerian(MAN), shares.

The debt service provision in the 2019 budget was a whooping N2 trillion whereas the total capital budget was N2.9 trillion. This implies that the debt service commitment was to 70 per cent of capital budget allocation. Debt to revenue ratio was about 30 per cent, which is also on the high pedestal. In the 2020 budget, the total revenue could barely cover debt service commitments and recurrent spending. The opportunity cost of high debt service commitments for the economy and nation’s citizens is very high. There’s also the exchange rate risk inherent in the exposure to mounting foreign debt, which should be a troubling kettle of fish to the country. As the naira depreciates, the burden of servicing foreign debt would intensify. This is a major problem with increasing stock of foreign debt.

Also, many Nigerians are of the opinion that these foreign loans would be inevitably looted by government officials. Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) submitted that the constant flying-around, cap-in-hand, by President Buhari to borrow from all conceivable creditors from all around the world is tantamount to converting Nigeria to a beggarly economy, which is against constitutional provisions. All over the country, infrastructures are in moribund state, despite the huge funds received by the government from foreign creditors, to fix the same infrastructural challenges.

SECESSIONISTS’ THREAT

In south-east Nigeria, a separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) wants to secede. It’s leader, Nnamdi Nwannekaenyi Kanu has been arrested by the

Igboho is currently on the run after operatives from the Department of State Services, in an unconventional offensive, attacked his house in the dead of night, after the government accused him of stockpiling ammunition. The group has drawn so many sympathizers, and many others believe that there wouldn’t have been an ‘Igboho’, if the government had addressed the killing of farmers, the destruction of their farm lands and commodities by armed Fulani herders, who have carried out their killing sprees with neartotal impunity in every part of the country.

INSURGENCY IN THE NORTH

government from foreign soil to face trial for sedition, treasonable felony, ethnic incitement among other charges. These offences carry long jail terms and the death sentence. The proscribed group has faced ironclad response from the central government. Nowhere in Nigeria is safe.

Nigeria is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in the world to live in. The 2020 Global

Terrorism Index identified it specifically as the third most troubled spot by terrorism. According to weekly tracking reports by the Council on Foreign Relations, in 2020 and so far in 2021, about 1,400 Nigerians have lost their lives to Islamic insurgents in northeastern Borno state and neighbouring areas.

The authority has tagged the movement a terrorist group, a sentiment the West doesn’t share. The Nigerian police has linked recent attacks on public infrastructures and security operatives to the group’s armed session, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), but the group has denied any involvement.

In the same vein, a self-acclaimed activist, Sunday Igboho, has surfaced in the south-west of the country, campaigning for a ‘Yoruba Nation’, a secessionist movement of another prominent ethnic group in the country. They have threatened that elections would not be held in the western region. Boko Haram, a fundamentalistinspired militia of possibly 5,000 attackers, occasionally raid neighbouring Chad and northern Cameroon, and is believed to shelter in the Sambisa forest along the Borno borders with Cameroon. Exactly why Nigerian Armed Forces of 300,000 troops and a $2 billion budget has failed to extirpate Boko Haram is not clear. Corruption in the military is allegedly a major factor, as well as inconsistent leadership from officers and politicians. It is believed that Boko Haram enjoys some amount of support from government officials. A claim made by the former Nigerian president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, that there were Boko Haram sympathizers in his administration.

BANDITRY AND KIDNAPPING: A NEW FOUND MERCHANDISE

Banditry and kidnapping have become a very lucrative economic activity in northern Nigeria. Since December 2020, at least over 1,400 students have been abducted from schools in the north, an action that has led to the closure of many public schools in the neck of the woods.

Aljazeera reported that at least $18.34 million was paid to kidnappers as ransom- mostly by families and the government between June 2011 and March 2020, according to a report by SB Morgen (SBM) Intelligence, a Lagos-based political risk analysis firm.

In an article titled, ‘Nigeria Is A Failed State’, published by the Foreign Policy in May 2021 and co-authored by Robert I. Rotberg, the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict and president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation, and John Campbell, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,and a former U.S ambassador to Nigeria, these experts argued that Nigeria has become a fully failed state of critical geopolitical concern. The piece identified the trappings of failed states- lack of security, unsafe, weak rules of law, corruption, limited political participation and voice, discrimination within borders against various classes and kinds of citizens, and sparing provision of educational and medical services. The article stated that most notably of failed states, is that they’re violent. The authors opined,

‘’This designation of repeated failure is not a knee-jerk, casual labeling, using emotive and pejorative words. Instead, it is a designation informed by a body of political theories developed at the turn of the century and elaborated upon, case by case, ever since. Indeed, thoughtful Nigerians over the past decade have debated,

often fervently, whether their state has failed. Increasingly, their consensus is that it has.’’ Nothing in this present reality conflicts with this materiality. The motivation of these groups appears to be purely economic. And no one has been tried and prosecuted by the government, whether at subnational levels or at the centre. How these criminals abduct school children in huge hundreds without being apprehended by security operatives leaves many befuddled. Reason many adduce the Nigerian military for colluding with these bandits.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Muslim cleric, acting as a selfappointed middleman, engages in talks with bandits and his efforts have led to the release of 27 students abducted in March, from a forestry college in Nigeria’s Kaduna state. He stated unequivocally that the Nigerian military colludes with the bandits. The army has always denied such claims. It beats one’s imagination that the Nigerian military claims not to know the hideouts of these unscrupulous elements, and yet, the cleric interfaces with them, anytime he wants to and in the company of security operatives. Even more ridiculous is that national dailies carry stories of these criminals demanding for vehicles, and food to feed those abducted, and threatened that if these essentials are not provided, the abductees will die of starvation.

As daunting as the mess the country finds itself in, it’s not insurmountable even if it takes trenchant and far-flung measures to curb the situation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that for Nigeria to accommodate young people entering the labour market, the country will need to create at least five million new jobs each year, over the next decade. Nigeria needs to embrace more open trade. Competitive policies would help diversify the economy and reinvigorate growth, particularly as the African Continental Free Area takes effect.

Furthermore, a large share of revenues is spent on the country’s public debt service payments, leaving insufficient fiscal space for critical social and infrastructure spending and other programs that would cushion an economic downtown. The need to mobilize revenues through efficiencyenhancing and progressive measures is a top near-term priority. Revisiting tax exemptions and custom duty waivers, increasing and broadening the base for excise taxes, developing a high-integrity taxpayer register, enhancing digital infrastructure, and improving ontime filing and payment are important measures.

Dr. Isaac Monday Ikpor, at University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi state, in his paper, Nigeria’s Economic Problems; Causes And The Way Forward, suggested that the Federal government should come up with a formidable economic policy that would address the continuous decline in the economy of the nation to forestall the present hardship been experienced in the country.

This could be done using the two tools of fiscal policy and monetary policy appropriately. He counseled that the government should engage in more restricting and controlling of foreign exchange, undertake the revival of the country’s productive capacity- encourage manufacturing sectors, adequate funding of the education sector, diversify the economy , make agricultural practice the mainstay of the economy, as it used to be, confront corruption head-on, amongst other measures.

Profile | By Victor Ejechi Fred Fabian Ngajiro: A Famous Tanzanian Businessman Who Built a Sh4 billion Business Empire at 33

I was able to secure employment after graduation. But I quit the job and started travelling to and from South Africa in 2012 to pursue my passion

It is indeed everyone’s aspiration to achieve greatness earlier, but this usually comes with a prize. In a world like ours in Africa, where numerous young people have taken to fraud and wanton lifestyles, as the only way to succeed and achieve greatness, Business Elite Africa felt the story of Fred Fabian Ngajiro from Tanzania is worthy of sharing.

With over 150 youngsters working under him at the interesting age of 33 years old, the Tanzaniaborn gent has meticulously positioned himself as a Shilling billionaire and the world is ready to listen to him.

This Award-winning entrepreneur, popularly known as Fred Vunjabei, is indeed revolutionizing the Tanzanian Fashion and Entertainment industry. He is a well-respected name in the fashion and entertainment industry, not ready to give up or slow down in his hunger for success.

Fred Vunjabei gained ground in the fashion business for his quality products and his use of price penetration to take over the industry in Tanzania. It has been reported that he sold his items at ridiculously low prices, hence making a killing at the market.

According to some customers, Vunjabei’ prices are so low compared with those in other retail outlets. They say the trade name itself - which loosely translates into ‘knockdown’ or ‘throwaway’ prices - is difficult to resist.

The Beginning

The celebrated Fred Vunjabel was born in Iringa Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania and spent his early years in Iringa. Not many know that Fred holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration at the Mzumbe University, from a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Dar es Salaam.

In an interview, he shared that, after college, he secured a Civil Service job - but due to his strong passion for doing and owning a business, he did not stay long in salaried employment.

“I was able to secure employment after graduation. But I quit the job and started

travelling to and from South Africa in 2012 to pursue my passion,” he says. When in South Africa, Fred started sending used mobile phones to Tanzania for sale.

“It was not my first time doing business. When I was pursuing my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Dar es Salaam, I was already selling DVD players to fellow students,” he says.

Apart from selling used smartphones, the self-made entrepreneur engaged in other businesses, including importing cars. Talking about the success of businesses, Fabian Ngajiro says that he learned the ropes of doing business in China, a place he stayed for some years.

The young businessman who has achieved tremendous success has tasked himself with the responsibility of educating the youth on how to create their own sources of income.

Ngajiro has been a subject of discussion among business stakeholders, particularly those dealing in the sale of clothes, with his strategy of incorporating entertainment in his commercial activities.

How did the brand ‘Vunjabei’ come about?

The starting point is usually tough for any business owner and that’s no different for Fred. The idea that led to the well-celebrated brand called “Vunjabei” was conceived during a trip to India in 2014.

He believes that his observation in different Indian market places taught him the trick that products that were sold at a discount, attracted more customers - and sold out quickly - compared to those that were not.

His business ideology was straightforward. He went into business with the mindset that giving people a discount might just be the thing to draw them in and attract them to become your loyal customers. And new customers mean new opportunities for cross-sells and up-sells, meaning more revenue in the long run as well.

That ideology has been working for him.

His inspirational mentality and determination pushed him to open his first clothing retail outlet in Kariakoo in 2015, calling it ‘Fred Vunjabei’. He started with a Sh2.5 million capital.

At that time, Fred had already left India for China where he was sourcing his supplies for the shop in Tanzania. He later started a fashion store company named ‘Vunjabei (T) Group Ltd:’ his brand tag for all of his retail shops in Tanzania.

Fred says he knew the idea of selling clothes at a discount price would work because most retailers in fashion stores were selling at higher prices, and he was convinced that not everyone can afford high prices. And so this gave him a competitive edge.

Today, his investment is valued at Sh4.64 billion, which includes other reputable businesses such as the specific Vunjabei outlets for sports and children’s wear called ‘Vunjabei Sports’ and ‘Vunjabei Toto.

Other Businesses

Over the years, Fred has expanded his business venture into other sectors and industries, just to add value to people and also solve problems. He believes that, if you solve a problem for people, you are adding value for them, and they will pay you for the services you render, and that has been a great philosophy to his business.

Apart from fashion and the selling of clothes, his businesses have been diversified into the hospitality and entertainment industries as well. He established Vunjabei hotels and a music label called ‘Too Much Money,’ which manages several popular musicians.

Fred has already been a big influence in the music industry, engaging and investing in different events. He has worked with A-list celebrities, including Diamond Platnumz, Hamisa Mobetto, Hassan Mwakinyo and Zuchu.

His record label has worked with other musicians like Baba Levo, Lady Jay Dee, Lulu Diva, Hamisa Mobetto, S2kizzy among others.

On his strategy to incorporate entertainment into his commercial activities, Fred believes that business is incomplete without entertainment, so he thinks outside the box to motivate his customers. He also believes that his drive is not only for profit but also to create job opportunities for his fellow young Tanzanians with dreams and goals to achieve.” His goal is to sign more artists under his music label and establish a video production company which will create more employment opportunities for young people in his country.

Awards and Recognitions

For those who believe that awards and recognitions prove that one is doing something right, Fred has some to his name, even though he has done so much to help people in his community without making much noise about it.

In 2019, he was nominated by Tanzania Digital Awards as ‘Best Male Entrepreneur on the Digital.’ In 2020, he was nominated by Tanzania Consumer Choice Awards as the ‘Most Preferred Upcoming Male Business Icon of the Year 2020’ in the category of Corporate /Business Professionals.