To celebrate our third anniversary, we are excited to release our first English episode this month, focusing on Mission 300. In this episode, we sit down with Franz Drees-Gross, Regional Director for Infrastructure for the World Bank’s Western and Central African countries, to gain insights on how access to electricity can transform Sub-Saharan Africa into an economic powerhouse. We also hear from other guests who have been impacted by the lack of access to energy.

The People First podcast is available online, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcast. For more updates, follow us by subscribing, and don’t forget to rate and comment on this episode.

Sequences

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Interview with guest, Franz Drees-Gross, World Bank Regional Director for Infrastructure, Western and Central Africa

07:05 Electrification success story and progress from Côte d'Ivoire

09:50 Habiba Ali's insights on the benefits of renewable energy for economic growth and gender parity in Nigeria

13:01 Ghanaian poet Nora Anyidoho on access to electricity

15:02 Conclusion

About People First Podcast

People First Podcast provides a human angle to concrete development topics as they affect people in Western and Central Africa. It also features World Bank project and initiatives. Join us for a sustainable and inclusive development!

About World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for low-income countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development.

“….in the long run, the value of having good electricity is that it ensures economic growth. It ensures inequalities are reduced; it ensures that there's gender parity” – Habiba Ali, CEO of Sosai Renewable Energies, Nigeria

Rama George: Hello and welcome to People First, the podcast from the World Bank that brings you stories and voices from Western and Central Africa. I'm your host, Rama George. Today, we're tackling a crucial issue: energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Did you know that 6 out of 10 people in this region live without electricity? This affects everything from healthcare and education to running businesses and homes.

In Western and Central Africa alone, over 220 million people face frequent power cuts or have no electricity at all.

Joining us today is Franz Drees-Gross, the Regional Director for Infrastructure for the World Bank’s Western and Central African countries. With his extensive experience in this sector, Franz will share insights on how access to electricity can transform Sub-Saharan Africa into an economic powerhouse.

So, tune in as we explore the transformative potential of electricity access and the initiatives leading the way. Let's power up Africa together!

Rama George: Hello Franz!

Franz Drees-Gross: Hi, Rama. Nice to be on your program.

Rama George: Welcome!

Considering the demographic growth across the continent, the number of Africans without electricity access is expected to remain largely unchanged by the end of the decade unless countries, development partners, and the private sector significantly increase their efforts to bridge the access gap.

Could you explain how the global landscape of electricity access has shifted over the years and why it's now primarily an African issue, if I may say?

Rama George: That's a significant challenge. How are you planning to achieve this?

Franz Drees-Gross: We realized we can't do it alone. We can commit to electrifying 250 million people. The African Development Bank immediately said, we'll come in for another 50 million. We're reaching out to other development partners. So, we're talking to all the major development partners, asking them to join us. We're also partnering with Sustainable Energy for All. We're also partnering with GEAPP, the Global Alliance for Energy Alliance for People and Planet, and with multiple other development partners and private sector players.

Rama George: What will it take for the different partners?

Franz Drees-Gross: So let me just frame the M 300 initiative a little bit for you. Getting 300 million people access to electricity in Africa is a stool that has three legs. The first is that development partners, beginning with the World Bank and African Development Bank, step up and make more resources available. That's one.

The second leg of the stool is governments. The reason the electricity access isn't growing fast enough is that they need deep sectoral reforms in the energy sector. So, governments are stepping up and saying, we want to make the most of this opportunity, we want to make those reforms, and we commit to them.

And the third leg of the stool is the private sector that's saying, we see governments making reforms, we see development partners putting in more resources. We're in. We're in on generation, we're in transmission, we're in in the off-grid space.

So, it's really those three partners coming together, governments, development partners, and philanthropies, and the private sector. That's what Mission 300 is all about, it's bringing those people together.

Rama George: Can you elaborate on the reforms needed?

Franz Drees-Gross: So, we've basically said, look, everybody realizes that you need to make reforms in five key areas.

The first one is: you have to bring down the cost of generation. If you want to connect new people, they won't be able to sustain their connection if the electricity they buy is too expensive. So, the way to bring that down is mostly to bring down the cost of generation. Transmission and distribution also have costs, but the lion's share of the cost you as an end consumer will see will be the cost of generation.

Rama George: How do you bring the cost down?

Franz Drees-Gross: Well, one way is to procure it competitively. So not just a single source, a solar plant or a gas to power turbine, but to bring competition into that. Surprisingly simple but surprisingly few countries do that. The second thing is to switch out of things that are expensive ways to produce electricity. Liquid fuels in particular, heavy fuel, oil and diesel are not just bad for the environment, they're extremely expensive ways to produce power. In some countries, countries are replacing them with gas to power. Those are ways that are going to bring down the generation. That's one pillar of these national energy compacts.

The second one is to commit to regional electricity integration. So already you have four power pools in Africa. There's actually the West African power pool, the East African Power Pool, the South African Power Pool, and the Central African Power Pool. And the idea is that countries, by having cross-border power lines, can source their electricity from those that can produce it most cheaply. That's another good way of bringing down the cost of generation.

The third pillar is taking the steps to have a very clear least-cost plan to roll out electricity access and access to clean cooking, which particularly, for women and girls, is a big, big issue for health and for development.

The fourth pillar is finding all the obstacles that keep the private sector from investing, off grid and on grid, and to eliminate those as much as possible.

And the fifth pillar is having viable utilities. Right now, of all the power utilities in Africa, 58% don't even cover the cost of producing the power. So, what they collect by tariffs doesn't even cover the cost of producing the electricity, much less investing in new generation or extending the grid or servicing debts. And because they don't cover it, very few private companies are willing to invest to produce power that they don't think the utility will have the money to pay for. So, you have to get those utilities to cost recovery levels, at least operational cost recovery levels, because otherwise you're not going to get the private investment you need.

Rama George: You’re right. Several African countries have significantly accelerated their pace of electrification, and some are on track to reaching SDG7, which aims to ensure that everyone has access to electricity.

There are so many inspiring stories from across the region showing that, with the right investments and policies, change is on its way.

Cote d'Ivoire has started ambitious programs to improve electricity access and made changes in its energy sector. This country is now a leading electricity exporter in the West African Power Pool.

So, for many in Cote d’Ivoire, power cuts are becoming a thing from the past. Let’s hear from two friends, one an inspiring artist and the other a banker. They had reunited on a basketball court during the holidays, in Abidjan:

Banker [R. Kouadio]: Electricity is one of the most important components we have these days. As a banker, I use electricity every day and all day to be able to process transactions and to be able to go through every line of work that I have. As an artist, my friend also uses that to create and produce his work as a musician.

Artist [A Coulibaly]: It allows me to stay connected with my family, which lives in the southern region of the country. There have been times when I wasn’t able to record my music because of power cuts and I lost all my work—which set me back tremendously.

Banker: As one of my closest friends here, there have been times when we could not connect for days, due to power cuts—which left me very scared and worried for a couple of days.

Better electricity can improve lives in terms of communication, transportation, healthcare and infrastructure. Those factors can improve the basic economy of the country.

Rama George: Coming back to Mission 300. How will these efforts impact local communities?

Franz Drees-Gross: There's lots of ways people are going to feel it and be involved. First, the very process of increasing electricity access creates jobs. If you look at off-grid systems, off-grid systems mean, a mini grid that's not connected to the main national grid, or maybe it may even be a connected mini grid, or installing solar home systems on people's roofs, that creates a lot of jobs in the manufacture and the installation of those systems, and in the maintenance.

The second way people are involved is in the off-grid space, it's going to mean mini-grid developers coming and talking to communities about their needs, about what they're willing to pay, and then building those systems and sizing them together with the local community. The point is not just to give people household level electricity access, but to make electricity available for productive uses.

If you're producing beef and you want to make sure it doesn't spoil on the way to market, you need the refrigeration. Again, you need power for that. And of course, you'll want to electrify health and educational facilities.

Rama George: True. As you said, it creates jobs, fosters economic growth, and transforms lives. Let’s pause for a moment and speak about Nigeria. Today, over 85 million Nigerians lack electricity, and even those connected to the grid experience frequent outages.

During a webinar held in December on scaling up access to electricity in Africa, Habiba Ali, the CEO of Sosai Renewable Energies, shared her optimism for renewable energy access in her country. Let’s hear again what she said.

Habiba Ali: The reason why we do not have energy in Nigeria is because the transmission is quite low. The connection is also very low.

Luckily, with the coming in of the World Bank, with the Nigerian Electrification project, we've been able to have more acceptance with renewable energy solutions. And currently there is a hype for the new program called Distributed Access to Renewable Energy Scale-up.

So I see that having renewable energies, especially across Africa, not just Nigeria now, is good for the economy because we can have energy access very close to the people, have energy independence and energy transition that will ensure that people have energy that they need for the activities they need to carry out, at the time they want to carry it out, and close to them.

Because in the long run, the value of having good electricity is that it ensures economic growth. It ensures inequalities are reduced; it ensures that there's gender parity.

Everybody's looking at how do we take part in ensuring that this program actually scales renewable energy as the name says. It is also one that a lot of people have eyes on. So, there's a lot of opportunities. And I think the time is now, really.

Rama George: Yes, the World Bank’s DARES program leverages a collaboration across the World Bank Group and development partners to significantly accelerate distributed renewable energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa through private sector engagement.

It’s no surprise that lots of people are eyeing it. It uses innovative systems such as a "Pay as you Go" solar plans, to make sure electricity is accessible to all. The program also emphasizes affordability, sustainability and scalability, creating a blueprint for broader development across Africa.

Now, let’s me turn back to you, Franz, what role can the global audience play in supporting these initiatives?

Franz Drees-Gross: I think this initiative, since it requires reform, requires people to understand what it takes to electrify Africa and to be advocates with their governments and saying, we understand this takes reforms, we support them. We support competitive procurement, because that's what's going to bring down the cost of generation. We support switching out of liquid fuels, because we know they're both dirty and expensive. So educated citizens pressuring their governments to do the right things for these reforms, I think are essential for their success.

Rama George: Thank you for these valuable insights. It's been a pleasure having you on the People First Podcast.

The success of this initiative will require partnership and shared commitment from all parties involved. That is why African heads of state, private sector, development partners and civil society organizations gathered recently at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to commit like never before to take concrete action towards this ambitious goal.

As we wrap things up, let's listen to the Ghanaian poet Nora Anyidoho who passionately supports the mission to bring electricity to the millions of people without power in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Audio of Poem by Nora Anyidoho

[link to YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXll6CdbTew&list=PL59FB6C9C9D741D01&index=26 ]

I'm Rama George, and you've been listening to People First, the podcast featuring not only the voices but also the programs and initiatives supported by the World Bank in Western and Central Africa.

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Join us next time for another episode of People First. On behalf of the production team, thank you so much for listening.