African countries participating in the eighth Leon H. Sullivan Summit were on Tuesday urged to increase electricity production so as to help increase the continent's overall productivity and better fight poverty.
The call was made by World Bank Vice President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili.
The World Bank official said that though the power production potential is huge in Africa where resources are abundant, the continent's actual power production had been stagnant since the 1980's. The dire situation was blown up by an average annual power outage of 56 days which affects production industries greatly.
Ezekwesili added that Africa needs an increase rate of 7 percent a year in electricity production but poor planning coupled with insufficient financing had stalled the development in this field.
The World Bank, one significant investor in electricity production in Africa, has therefore appealed to attendants of the Arusha summit to turn to regional solutions, improved effectiveness in governance of utilities and wider engagement in the sector to scale up electricity production and usage, especially in rural areas.
The Leon H. Sullivan Summit in Arusha has two themes of infrastructure and tourism development.
Delegates were grouped to discuss options of alternative energies and regional power pools so as to increase the availability of electricity which has been considered as "basic rights" by developed countries.
Bakari Lekaria, a local investor from Arusha, attended the alternative energy forum to see which of the proposed solar, wind, tidal, biomass and even atomic energy forms is suitable as well as affordable.
"Money is the biggest concern here," said the local investor.
The World Bank vice president for the African region also stressed the funding problem by saying that Africa needs to spend at least 3 percent of its annual gross domestic product on improving the electricity production capability so as to keep up with its fast growing production ability.
Source: Xinhua
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