Lighting up Africa - plans of a former French Minister.

World Map at Night - Africa in the Dark 

Whether for economic benefits to Europe or out of goodwill, former French Minister Jean-Louis Borloo presented his plan on Tuesday 3rd March 2015 to future investors and a brief appearance of the President François Hollande.

Currently, only 25% of the continent - excluding Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - has access to electricity. His conclusion : a stagnating Europe economy must invest in this future territory. "Africa is the gateway to Europe with rapid population growth, this may be our future. Because electricity is the basis for everything else: agriculture, access to water, health, the economy..." he said.

He has given himself 10years to realise the project to 600million Africans who have no access to energy. His estimates based on economic studies stated that 200billion euros are needed over a decade, including 50billion grants, that is, 4 billion per year. "This is a joke! This represents 3% of the European Union's budget."

Nobody in the world is willing to personally engage themselves to help build the infrastracture, hence the idea is to create an specialised agency which will have access to the 4 billions euros per annum that will be coordinating the projects across the continent. This agency will be piloted by the Africans. Each region shall decide on the nature of energy to be produced. Be it geothermal, solar and wind etc.

He wishes that all be in place by the end of June, to be operational before the Paris Summit in December.

At the end of the interview he adds that, "And then there are the Europeans who are freaked out to see the effect of misery on the masses -radicalisation.

Sources;

Châtelot C. (2015). Le Monde Afrique