AfDB unveils Africa Energy Portal, says 75.7m Nigerians without electricity

The Africa Development Bank  (AfDB) has launched a “one-stop-shop for accurate, reliable, relevant, and up-to-date information on energy in Africa,” the Africa Energy Portal.

The portal is one of the deliverables from the just concluded Africa Investment Forum (AIF) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In a statement, the development bank said portal will help address lack of information in Africa’s energy sector.

“The AEP portal, hosted at http://africa-energy-portal.org, will consolidate, validate, and disseminate energy data and insights across Africa’s energy value chain, covering generation, transmission, distribution, regulation and policy,” the statement read.

“The AEP is designed to address a lack of information in the sector, by providing a one-stop-shop for accurate, reliable, relevant, and up-to-date information on energy in Africa.

“This will include statistics on investment flows and deals, as well as the socio-economic outcomes of power projects.”

Speaking during the launch, Wale Shonibare, director of energy financial solutions, policy and regulation at the AfDB said the AEP as a long-overdue, but a necessary, step in “providing critical information for investment decisions, policy making, and regulatory action in Africa’s energy sector”.

“We are aware that the portal’s success will depend on extensive collaboration, and we invite professionals, developers, investors, regulators, governments, financial institutions, statisticians, utility companies, think tanks, philanthropic institutions and other stakeholders to work with us in creating a robust and formidable platform for the continent,” he added.

The portal seen by TheCable shows that 75.7 million Nigerians are living without electricity, with 63.04 million of them living in rural communities.

The latest data about Nigeria, available on the portal, is from 2016.

Speaking at the Africa Investment Forum earlier in November, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, says it is unacceptable for Nigeria to be delivering 4,500 megawatts of electricity.

“My own perspective in everything that I do is that my philosophy of development is simple; if I am not ashamed of something I don’t change it. But if I am ashamed of something, I’d change it,” he had said.

“I don’t think its acceptable that Nigeria is hovering in 4,500 megawatts space. No. Nigeria ought to be in 40,000 megawatts space. That is what we should be talking about.”

The Nigerian government says the country would generate 9,000MW of power by December 2018.