Energy use in Africa characterised by wastages — Isoun
The minister of science and technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, says the use of energy in Africa is characterised by wastages and poor conservation.
Isoun made the observation at the opening of the Africa Forum on Energy Efficiency yesterday in Abuja.
He said that “an estimated 50 per cent of the energy generated for cooking with stove in Africa is wasted.’’
“The average African does not seem to be conscious of this waste,’’ he added.
He said that the inefficiency in energy generation and usage were product of two factors of ignorance and the use of poor equipment due to poverty.
He said that industries and other economic activities on the African continent continued to experience energy crisis with incessant outages in electricity supply.
“The increasing use of fuel wood at home and by the small-scale industries is having a devastating toll on the forests thus causing erosion and desertification,’’ he said.
He said that problems and crisis confronting Africa were closely related to energy generation and utilisation.
The minister therefore said that there was an urgent need to educate the people to be aware of the dependence of human activities on the generation and utilisation of energy.
“They should also be acquainted with good knowledge of energy generation, economy and management,’’ he said.
He said that a sound energy programme for the continent would help in matching the high-energy demand of industrialisation and population growth with a proper energy auditing.
Earlier, the Director General, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Prof. Abubakar Sambo, had said that the forum was an opportunity for Africa to take stock of its energy generation and utilisation.
Sambo said that the forum provided Africa the platform of collating data its energy needs as well as undertaking and promoting research into means of supplying and using energy for the greatest social benefit.
“It gives us the opportunity to research and come up with the least harmful impact on the natural environment and publishing and disseminating the results of such research,’’ he said.